Moral  Education 


By 

Edward  Howard  Griggs 


Author  of 


The  Ntiu  Humanism  and  A  Booh  of  Medhationt 


SECOND    EDITION 


**Welche  unendliche  Operationen  Natur  und 
Kunst  machen  miissen,  bis  ein  gebildeter  Mensch 
dasteht.*' — Goethe, 

*r\  BRA  ^ 
or  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

NEW    YORK 
B.    W.    HUEBSCH 


*     »    - 

»    >       o 


*     »  f  »       »         \  % 


•    • 


COPYRICHT    1903 
BY 

EDWARD  HOWARD    GRIGGS 


s 


PREFACE 

It  is  now  widely  recognized  in  America  that  the  chief 
aim  of  educat^ion  is  to  develop  noble  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. The  absorption,  natural  to  our  pioneer  period,  in 
sharpening  the  tools  of  the  mind  and  equipping  the  individ- 
ual  for  personal  success,  is  being  rapidly  replaced  by  the 
effort  to  mold  the  moral  personality  that  will  use  the  mind's 
instruments  for  the  great  ends  of  human  life,  in  harmony 
with  the  good  of  the  whole.  Nor  is  this  movement  con- 
fined to  our  own  country.  The  struggle  to  recover  from 
the  disaster  of  1870  in  France,  the  influence  of  the  educa- 
tional reformers  in  Germany,  the  enthusiastic  awakening 
of  the  nation  in  Italy,  the  growth  of  social  and  humani- 
tarian sentiment  in  England,  have  led  to  interesting  ex- 
periments in  moral  education  in  the  countries  named. 
We  have  still  much  to  learn  from  these  experiments,  espe- 
cially in  France  and  Germany,  but  it  is  in  our  own  country 
that  the  greatest  awakening  to  the  moral  aim  of  education 
has  occurred. 

Yet  while  the  end  is  thus  generally,  if  vaguely,  recognized, 
there  is  still  the  greatest  confusion  as  to  what  it  implies  and 
as  to  the  means  by  which  it  can  be  attained.  Character  is 
often  conceived  in  a  purely  negative  way,  as  the  avoidance 
of  evil,  while  the  problem  of  moral  culture  is  at  times  even 
interpreted  to  mean  assigning  a  school  period  in  which  to 
teach  'morals  and  manners '  as  one  would  teach  arithmetic. 
Moreover,  much  of  the  literature  of  the  subject  is  singu- 
larly dreary  and  barren.     I  have  long  puzzled  over  the 


4  PREFACE 

cause  of  this.  Certainly,  in  practice,  ethical  problems  are 
the  most  absorbingly  interesting  of  all  we  must  meet,  and 
it  would  seem  that  moral  education  should  be  the  most 
interesting,  as  it  is  the  most  important  part  of  the  whole 
process  of  culture.  Yet  many  of  the  books  on  the  subject 
are  filled  with  a  wearisome  repetition  of  the  conventional 
analysis  of  duties,  and  the  commonplace,  trite  maxims  that 
are  fruitless  for  man  or  child. 

I  have  been  able  to  discover  three  reasons  for  this  barren- 
ness: 

1.  Ethical  teachers  have  too  often  yielded  to  the  temp- 
tation to  inculcate  what  they  considered  useful  without 
much  regard  to  its  truth.  Where  they  have  allowed  their 
desire  to  be  helpful  to  supplant  their  reverence  for  reality 
the  result  is  always  hypocrisy  and  artificiality. 

2.  It  is  necessary  to  take  a  point  of  view  that  is  not 
merely  of  the  time,  if  one's  work  is  to  escape  triviality. 
This  explains  why  so  much  of  the  literature  of  moral  educa- 
tion that  once  had  a  value  is  useless  after  twenty  years, 
while  the  artistic  literature  contemporaneous  with  it  is  per- 
manent in  worth.  If  we  lose  the  eternal  in  the  transient, 
life  ceases  to  have  a  meaning;  if  we  live  perfectly  in  the 
moment  we  realize  the  eternal.  So  Plato  and  Spinoza  are 
as  useful  today,  almost,  as  when  they  wrote,  while  the 
ephemeral  books  born  of  their  hour  load  our  libraries  with 
barren  stuff. 

3.  Deeper  than  both  of  these  causes  is  the  fact  that  so 
much  of  the  literature  dealing  directly  with  ethical  prob- 
lems is  born  of  the  study  rather  than  the  world,  evidencing 
an  habitual  detachment  from  human  life  that  involves  a 
loss  of  appreciation  of  its  concrete  problems.  While  the 
resulting  theory  may  be  logical  and  satisfying  to  the  iritel- 


PREFACE  5 

lect,  it  helps  us  little  in  dealing  with  the  real  problems  of 
human  living. 

Therefore,  if  we  can  keep  close  to  the  process  of  life 
itself,  asking  always  reverently  w4iat  is  the  truth,  and 
seeking  to  find  the  eternal  in  the  best  life  of  the  moment, 
we  may  hope  to  retain,  both  in  our  study  and  in  the  prac- 
tical work  of  moral  education,  something  of  the  deep  inter- 
est that  ethical  problems  possess  in  our  experience. 

Thus  I  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  attempt  a  study, 
as  exhaustive  as  I  could  make  it,  of  the  whole  problem  of 
moral  culture :  its  purpose  in  relation  to  our  society  and  all 
the  means  through  which  that  purpose  can  be  attained. 
My  aim  has  been  sanity  and  not  novelty.  In  education  as 
in  life  we  are  led  astray  by  brilliant  half-truths.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  detect  and  avoid  w^hat  is  merely  false,  but  wis- 
dom means  putting  half-truths  in  their  place,  viewing  each 
element  in  wildest  relation  and  therefore  truest  perspective, 
seeing  life,  as  INIatthew  Arnold  said  Sophocles  saw  it, 
'steadily  and  whole.' 

Today,  particularly,  it  is  sanity  we  most  need  in  educa- 
tion. The  tides  of  thought  come  with  ebb  and  flow;  just 
now  we  are  in  the  flood-tide  of  what  is  somewhat  mvthicallv 
called  ''the  new  education."  We  have  turned  from  duty 
to  interest,  from  form  to  content,  from  discipline  to  nutri- 
tion, from  instruction  to  expression,  from  prescription  to 
election.  In  all  this  is  much  gain,  but  only  if  we  avoid 
extreme  reaction  and  keep  the  good  of  the  old  in  the  new. 
To  assume  that  the  novel  must  be  the  best,  to  despise  the 
old  because  it  is  old ,  and  regard  onlv  the  most  recent  theo- 
ries  as  worthy  of  enthusiastic  following,  is  to  mistake  a  tidal 
wave  for  the  Gulf  Stream  and  invite  a  reactioil  to  the  ex- 
treme of  the  very  elements  against  which  we  have  been 


6  PREFACE 

contending.  The  great  truths  of  life  are  simple  and  uni- 
versal; they  have  been  repeated  over  and  over  again.  The 
form  of  their  expression  is  ever  new  and  changing,  born 
anew  as  they  must  be  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  new  age.  The 
Truth  is  not  a  mean  between  two  extremes,  nor  is  it  an 
eclectic  patchwork  combining  pieces  of  truth  artificially. 
We  attain  even  glimpses  of  it  only  with  a  certain  wholeness 
of  vision  and  sanity  of  perspective,  with  a  recognition  that 
is  inclusive  and  unified.  The  aim  in  this  book  has  been 
to  see  'steadily  and  whole'  both  human  life  and  the  pro- 
cess of  moral  culture  that  leads  to  it  and  makes  possible 
the  happiest  and  most  helpful  living. 

I  may  sometime  publish  a  body  of  selected  and  graded 
material  for  the  ethical  instruction  of  children  as  outlined 
in  Chapters  XIX -XXIII.  The  present  work  is  not  a 
text  for  children,  but  is  intended  as  a  guide  for  parents  and 
teachers,  a  text  for  classes  studying  the  subject  of  moral 
education  in  normal  schools  and  universities,  and  as  an 
effort  at  a  complete  and  inclusive  view  of  the  problem  for 
all  who  are  interested  in  moral  culture. 

Edward  Howard  Griggs. 

Montclair,  New  Jersey,  September  1904. 


Table   of   Contents 


PAGE 

Preface  3 

Chapter          I.     The  Child  "World 9 

'II.     The  Unity  of  Human  Life 17 

III.     The  Uniqueness  of  Each  Personality  .      .  24 

IV.     The  Growth-Process  of  Human  Life    .      .  32 

V.     The  Two  Principles  of  Moral  Evolution  .  40 

VL     The  Relation  of  Moral  Culture  to  Other 

Aspects  of  Education 47 

VII.     The  Type  of  Character  ATot^at.  EnrcA^ioN  \^ 

Should  Foster 56 


VIII.     Types  of  Activity 67 

IX.     Moral  Education  Through  Play      ...     74 

X.     Moral  Education  Through  Work    ...     86    V"^ 

XL     The   Moral   Influence   of  Environment: 

Art  and  Nature 101 

XII.     Moral   Influence   of  the   Social  Atmos-  \^ 

PHERE 114 

XIII.     Principles  of  Government  in  Home  and 

School 129      *^ 


TABLE  OF   CONTENTS,  Continued 

PAGE 

Chapter     XIV.     The  Progressive    Application  of  Democ- 
racy IN  Home  and  School  Government  142 

"  XV.     The  Nature  and  Function  of  Corrective 

Discipline 156 

"          XVI.     The    Administration  of  Corrective  Dis- 
cipline     1C7 

*'        XVII.     Personal  Influence  of  Parent  and  Teach- 
er IN  the  Government  of  Children     .   182 

"      XVIII.     Moral  Teaching  by  Example       ....   199 

"         XIX.     Direct  Ethical  Instruction 207 

"           XX.     Ethical  Instruction  through  Other  Sub- 
jects: History 222 

"         XXI.     The    Ethical   Value    of   Mythology   and 

Folk-Lore 236 

"       XXII.     The   Value    of   Literature   for   Ethical 

Instruction  and  Inspiration     .      .      .  248 

*'      XXIII.     The  Practical  Use  of  LIistory  and  Litera- 
ture for  Ethical  Instruction        .      .      .  258' 

"      XXIV.     Instruction  in  the  Intimate  Problems  of 

Human  Life 268 

"        XXV.     The    Relation    of    Moral    to    Religious 

Education 279 

Conclusion 293 

Bibliography 297 

Index 342 

8 


THE  CHILD  WORLD 

It  has  taken  long  to  learn  the  lesson  that  childhood  is 
not  simply  an  imitation  of  mature  life,  nor  a  preparation 
for  it,  but  a  separate  and  different  world  with  its  own  joys 
and  sorrows.  As  the  early  Italian  painters  made  their  chil- 
dren, even  their  babies,  smaller  men  and  women,  paying 
little  attention  to  the  true  anatomy  and  structure  of  the 
child's  body,  so  the  older  education  treated  children  as 
lesser  men  and  women,  planning  its  courses  of  study  on  an 
analysis  of  the  adult  mind.  Just  as  the  true  representation 
of  childhood  has  been  one  of  the  great  steps  forward  in  art, 
so  the  recognition  of  the  different  character  and  independ- 
ent meaning  of  the  child  world  is  perhaps  the  greatest 
advance  in  recent  education.  That  recognition  is  almost 
universal  today,  though  many  of  its  practical  results  are  not 
yet  worked  out;  and  we  are  able  to  state  with  some  defin- 
iteness  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  childhood. 

1.  Perhaps  beyond  anything  else  it  is  the  intensity  of 
interest  in  the  present  moment  that  marks  child  life  in 
contrast  to  our  mature  attitude.  With  the  child  there  is 
less  'looking  before  and  after,'  especially  with  reference 
to  painful  experience.  It  is  true  children  take  keen  pleas- 
ure in  the  anticipation  of  a  specific  promised  joy,  but  largely 
by  living  it  over  in  advance  in  the  imagination,  while  there 
is  no  postponing  of  the  meaning  of  the  present  moment. 
Our  consciousness  that  the  chapter  will  end  often  takes  the 


f^^-c-A-y*.   -»••.«.  -x^ 


10  MORAL    EDUCATION 

heart  out  of  a  joy  or  lessens  the  bitterness  of  our  pain ;  but 
the  child  lives  in  a  moment  that  seems  to  stretch  away 
limitlessly.  Wakening  on  Saturday  morning  with  *  a  whole 
day  to  play  in/  he  looks  forward  to  a  reach  of  anticipated 
joy  hardly  equaled  by  the  adult's  dream  of  paradise. 

2.  Thus  children  feel  more  keenly  than  we  do  the  joys 
and  sorrows  of  the  passing  moment.  Discounting  both- 
types  of  experience  for  ourselves,  we  are  apt  to  do  so  still 
more  for  the  child,  unless  we  have  unusual  sympathy  with 
his  point  of  view.  But  the  breaking  of  a  doll  may  bring 
the  child  for  the  moment  into  the  presence  of  absolute 
tragedy.     It  is  we  who  can  say ; 

"There,  little  girl;  don't  cry! 

They  have  broken  your  doll,  I  know; 
And  your  tea-set  blue, 
And  your  play-house,  too, 
Are  things  of  the  long  ago; 

But  childish  troubles  will  soon  pass  by. — 
There!  little  girl;  don't  cry!"^ 

We  can  say  this  because  we  can  see  that  every  experience, 
however  bitter,  passes,  since  we  have  been  schooled  to 
recognize  the  changing  succession  of  moods  and  events; 
but  not  so  the  child.  To  him  the  pain  or  joy  of  the  mo- 
ment is  absolute  while  it  lasts. 

3.  Childhood  is  further  characterized  by  much  greater 
spontaneity  in  action  and  expression  than  is  shown  in 
mature  life.  This  applies  to  both  good  and  bad  impulses. 
The  fit  of  passion  and  the  mood  of  happy  generosity  tend 
alike  to  immediate  action,  since  the  child  has  not  learned, 

^  From  A  Life-Lesson,  bv  James  Whitcomb  Riley,  in  Child-Rhymes, 
pp.  171-172,  The  Bowen-'Merrill  Go.,  Indianapolis,  1899. 


THE    CHILD    WORLD  11 

as  we  have,  to  inhibit  or  control  the  expression  of  passing 
emotions  through  more  permanent  controUing  motives. 

4.  So  the  child  is  nearer  reality  as  opposed  to  convention 
than  are  we.  The  fresh  impulses  of  our  lives  get  over- 
laden with,  an  ever  denser  garment  of  social  forms,  until  in 
the  end  the  impulses  are  suppressed  in  much  of  our  living. 
Children  live  more  immediately  in  the  presence  of  truth 
and  beauty,  responding  more  directly  to  the  simplest 
things  in  nature  and  human  life. 

5.  Finally,  in  children  the  imaginative  and  emotional 
life  is  strong,  while  the  development  of  conscious  reflection 
proceeds  slowly.  The  child  is  a  bundle  of  impulses  and 
instincts,  generic  and  individual,  combined  by  heredity, 
called  out  under  the  influence  of  environment,  rapidly 
crystallizing  into  habits,  meagerly  supervised  by  conscious 
reflection. 

As  the  child  world  is  thus  distinct  in  character  and 
meaning,  so  it  has  its  own  worth  apart  from  its  relation  to 
subsequent  life.  It  is  most  important  to  recognize  this, 
since  there  can  be  no  greater  failure  than  in  ever  postponing 
life  to  some  future  time.^  This  was  the  mistake  of  medi- 
aeval Christianity  with  reference  to  the  whole  earth  life. 
This  world  was  regarded  as  so  merely  a  preparation  for 
another  that  the  meaning  of  the  present  life  was  sometimes 
quite  lost.  We  have  learned  that  if  life  is  to  be  good  any- 
where it  ought  to  begin  to  be  good  now,  and  it  is  our  busi- 

^  "To  be  suddenly  snuffed  out  in  the  middle  of  ambitious  schemes, 
is  tragical  enough  at  best;  but  ^vhen  a  man  has  been  grudging  him- 
self his  own  life  in  the  meanwhile,  and  saving  up  everything  for  the 
festival  that  was  never  to  be,  it  becomes  that  hysterically  moving 
sort  of  tragedy  which  lies  on  the  confines  of  farce.  The  victim  is 
dead — and  he  has  cunningly  overreached  himself:  a  combination  of 
calamities  none  the  less  absurd  for  being  grim." — Robert  Louis 
Stevenson,  Virginihus  Puerisque,  p.  95. 


12  MORAL   EDUCATION 

ness  to  make  it  so.  The  best  preparation  for  any  possible 
future  world  is  the  fullest  realization  of  life  in  the  present. 

In  the  same  way  lite  should  have  as  complete  a  meaning 
OS  possible  in  each  phase  of  it,  and  to  postpone  one  phase 
ever  to  the  next  and  the  next  is  to  miss  the  meaning  of  the 
whole.  Kant's  practical  imperative  of  duty  was:  *'So  act 
as  to  treat  humanity,  whether  in  thine  own  person  or  in 
that  of  any  other,  in  every  case,  as  an  end  withal,  never  as  a 
means  only."^  This  imperative  must  be  extended  to  each 
phase  in  the  process  of  the  individual  life;  each  must  be 
regarded  as  having  its  own  value,  therefore  as  in  some 
measure  an  end  in  itself,  never  merely  a  means  to  some 
later  phase.- 

This  principle  is  generally  recognized  in  its  application 
to  mature  life,  and  sometimes  to  youth;  but  unfortunately 
the  moment  we  turn  to  the  problem  of  education  w^e  tend  to 
forget  it,  and  so  to  mold  everything  with  reference  to  the 
adult  life  for  which  we  wdsh  to  form  the  child.  The  result 
is  the  same  as  with  human  life  in  the  middle  ages.  If  we 
treat  childhood  merely  as  a  preparation  for  maturity  we 
fail  to  prepare  well,  besides  losing  much  of  the  independent 

'  Kant's  Critique  of  Practical  Reason  and  Other  Works  on  the 
Theory  of  Ethics,  translated  by  T.  K.  Abbott,  p.  47.  Longmans, 
Green,  &  Co.,  London,  1889. 

'  "The  boy  has  not  become  a  boy,  nor  has  the  youth  become  a  youth, 
by  reaching  a  certain  age,  but  only  by  having  lived  through  child- 
hood, and,  further  on,  through  boyhood,  true  to  the  requirements 
of  his  mind,  his  feelings,  and  his  body;  similarly,  adult  man  has  not 
become  an  adult  man  by  reaching  a  certain  age,  but  only  by  faith- 
full-'  satisfying  the  requirements  of  his  childhood,  boyhood,  and 
voijtii." — FuiEDRicH  Froebel,  The  Education  of  Man,  tianslatedby 
Hailrnaiui,  p.  29. 

"  Woe  to  every  sort,  of  culture  which  destroys  the  most  effectual 
means  of  ;dl  true  culture,  and  direc^ts  us  to  the  end,  instead  of  ren- 
dering us  happy  on  the  way!"— Goethe,  Wilhelm  Meister's Appren- 
ticeship and  Travels,  translated  by  Carlyle,  vol.  2,  p.  80. 


THE  CHILD   WORLD  13 

worth  of  childhood  in  joy  and  beauty.  One  of  our  greatest 
debts  to  Rousseau  is  his  insistence  that  we  must  make  child- 
hood joyous  in  every  step  of  it;^  and  later  writers  such  as 
Stevenson,  Grahame,  Barrie,  Field,  Riley,  have  done  us  a 
priceless  sendee  in  interpreting  childhood  so  that  we  are 
made  to  see  its  worth  for  itself.  The  books  of  these  mod- 
ern authors,  written  nominally  for  children,  often  appeal 
less  to  a  child  audience  than  to  us,  to  whom  they  give  a 
new  vision  and  appreciation  of  the  child  world. 

As  childhood  may  and  ought  to  be  one  of  the  happiest 
and  most  beautiful  chapters  of  human  experience,  it  is 
especially  necessary  that  we  should  apply  to  it  the  principle 
of  the  independent  worth  of  each  phase  of  life.  The 
*  golden  glory'  in  which  many  of  us  see  our  early  life,  may 
indeed  be  due  to  the  mists  of  the  years  that  lie  between, 
nevertheless  the  qualities  that  distinguish  childhood,  its 
freshness  and   spontaneity,   its  closeness  to  nature  and 

^  See,  for  example,  Emile,  book  II,  pp.  59-60,  Firmin-Didot  et  Cie., 
Paris,  1894: 

"Les  plus  grands  risques  de  la  vie  sont  dans  son  comnienceraent ; 
moins  on  a  vecu,  moins  on  doit  esperer  de  vivre.  Des  enfants  qui 
naissent,  la  moitie,  tout  au  plus,  parvient  a  I'adolescence,  et  il  est 
probable  que  votre  eieve  n'atteindra  pas  I'age  d'homme. 

"Que  faut-il  done  penser  de  cette  education  barbare  qui  sacrifie 
le  present  a  un  avenir  incertain,  qui  charge  un  enfant  de  chaines  de 
toute  espece,  et  commence  par  le  rendre  miserable,  pour  lui  preparer 
au  loin  je  ne  sais  quel  pretendu  bonheur  dont  il  est  h  croire  qu'il  ne 
jouira  jamais?  Quand  je  supposerais  cette  Education  raisonnable 
dans  son  objet,  comment  voir,  sans  indignation,  de  pauvres  infor- 
tun^s  soumis  a  un  joug  insupportable,  et  condamnes  a  des  travaux 
continuels  comme  des  galeriens,  sans  etre  assure  que  tant  de  soins 
leur  seront  jamais  utiles?  L'age  de  la  gaiete  se  passe  au  milieu  des 
pleurs,  des  chatiments,  des  menaces,  de  Tesclavage.  On  tourmente 
le  malheureux,  pour  son  bien;  et  Ton  ne  voit  pas  la  mort  qu'on 
appelle,  et  qui  va  le  saisir  au  milieu  de  ce  triste  appareil.  Qui  sait 
combien  d'enfants  perissent  victimes  de  I'extravagante  sagesse  d'un 
pere  ou  d'un  maitre?  Heureux  d'echapper  k  sa  cruaute,  le  seul 
avantage  qu'ils  tirent  des  niaux  qu'il  leur  a  fait  souffrir,  est  de 
mourir  sans  regretter  la  vie,  uont  ils  n'ont  connu  que  ies  tourmeats." 


14  MORAL    EDUCATION 

simple  human  life,  give  it  a  charm  and  meaning  not  equaled 
in  the  same  way  by  later  experience.  How  foolish  then 
is  all  educational  discussion  that  regards  only  what  we 
wish  to  secure  in  maturity,  without  considering  the  worth 
and  happiness  of  each  moment  of  the  child's  life.  Our  aim 
should  be  to  treat  each  child  so  that  if  life  broke  off  at  any 
point  we  could  say  of  the  chapter  experienced  by  the  child, 
it  was  happy  and  worth  while.  ^ 

On  the  other  hand,  if  life  should  have  as  full  a  meaning 
as  possible  in  each  moment,  it  should  also  be  an  organic 
unity.     As  Wordsworth  states  it: 

"The  Child  is  father  of  the  Man; 
And  I  could  wish  my  days  to  be 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety."  ^ 

Nothing  makes  for  general  wretchedness  more  completely 
than  a  life  in  which  each  phase  stands  whimsically  apart 
from  all  the  rest,  the  individual  following  in  every  step  of 
his  experience  the  chance  will-o'-the-wisp  of  the  moment's 
desire.  Each  part  of  life  should  have  its  rational  place  in 
the  whole,  and  one  phase  should  lead  naturally  to  the  next; 

1  Compare  Lecky,  The  Map  of  Life,  pp.  239-240: 

"Many  a  parent  standing  by  the  coffin  of  his  child  has  felt  with 
bitterness  how  much  of  the  measure  of  enjoyment  that  short  life 
might  have  known  has  been  cut  off  by  an  injudicious  education. 
And  even  if  adult  life  is  attained,  the  evils  of  an  unhappy  childhood 
are  seldom  wholly  compensated.  The  pleasures  of  retrospect  are 
among  the  most  real  we  possess,  and  it  is  around  our  childish  days 
that  our  fondest  associations  naturally  cluster.  An  early  overstrain 
of  our  powers  often  leaves. behind  it  lasting  distortion  or  weakness, 
and  a  sad  childhood  introduces  into  the  character  elements  of  mor- 
bidness and  bitterness  that  will  not  disappear." 

'  From  My  Heart  Leaps  Up  When  I  Behold,  Wordsworth,  Com- 
plete Works,  Globe  edition,  p.  171. 


THE    CHILD    WORLD  15 

for  life  is  a  developing  process,  and  the  joy  and  worth  of 
one  moment  is  dependent  in  no  small  measure  upon  its 
relation  to  the  preceding  moments  and  the  use  that  has 
been  made  of  those.  This  is  well  expressed  in  the  doc- 
trine of  'Karma/  which  holds  that  the  possibility  of  life 
at  any  point  is  the  net  resultant  of  all  the  actions  and 
experiences  that  precede.  Each  moment  is  a  new  oppor- 
tunity to  live,  but  our  power  to  utilize  it  depends  upon  what 
we  have  done  in  all  the  yesterdays.  Apart  from  any 
theory  of  reincarnation,  this  statement  may  be  much 
widened  in  meaning  if  we  consider  the  relation  of  one  life, 
through  heredity,  to  those  that  precede  and  follow  it. 
How  much  of  both  our  power  and  weakness  is  due  to  this 
relation  to  the  past;  and  while  each  life  is  an  end  in  itself, 
we  regard  that  individual  as  highly  immoral  who  does  not 
govern  his  own  life  in  harmony  with  the  good  of  all  the 
descendants  who  follow  him.  Thus  there  was  a  certain 
Tightness  in  the  mediaeval  view  of  the  relation  of  time  and 
eternity.  The  individual  life  in  this  world  loses  its  mean- 
ing unless  it  is  lived  in  harmony  with  the  whole  of  life, 
whatever  that  is  regarded  to  be.^ 

Thus  there  are  two  balancing  principles,  each  of  which, 
must  be  obeyed  in  harmony  with  the  other.     The  present 
moment  should  be  full  and  satisfying,  yet  in  harmony  with 
the  best  for  all  the  moments  that  follow.     Each  phase  of 

^  Compare  Froebel,  The  Education  of  Man,  translated  by  Hail- 
mann,  p.  27: 

"It  is  highly  pernicious  to  consider  the  stages  of  human  develop- 
ment— infant,  child,  boy  or  girl,  youth  or  maiden,  man  or  woman, 
old  man  or  matron — as  really  distinct,  and  not,  as  life  shows  them, 
as  continuous  in  themselves,  in  unbroken  transitions;  highly  per- 
nicious to  consider  the  child  or  boy  as  something  wholly  different 
from  the  youth  or  man,  and  as  something  so  distinct  that  the  com- 
mon foundation  {human  being)  is  seen  l^ut  vaguely  in  the  idea  and 
U'ord,  and  scarcely  at  all  considered  in  life  and  for  life." 


16  MORAL    EDUCATION 

life  should  have  its  own  value,  yet  prepare  for  those  suc- 
ceeding. And  so  we  should  keep  the  child's  life  joyous 
and  in  itself  worth  while,  yet  bring  it  into  unison  with  the 
whole  of  life  and  make  it  prepare  naturally  for  the  most 
happy  and  effective  manhood  and  womanhood.  Nor  are 
these  principles  opposed;  on  the  contrary  it  is  impossible 
to  fulfill  one  on  a  high  plane  without  obeying  the  other. 
We  have  seen  that  if  we  miss  the  meaning  of  the  phase  that 
passes  we  fail  to  prepare  best  for  the  subsequent  life ;  and 
invariably  we  make  a  wrong  use  of  the  present  moment 
when  it  is  out  of  harmony  with  the  whole.  This,  indeed, 
is  one  of  the  best  tests  for  distinguishing  false  pleasure 
from  true  joy.  A  brutal  intoxication  may  seem  pleasur- 
able for  the  time,  but  it  as  completely  destroys  the  real 
worth  of  the  moment  as  it  separates  the  part  from  sane 
relation  to  the  whole  of  life.  Let  me  repeat:  one  of  the 
best  tests  of  the  worth  of  the  moment  is  that  it  prepare 
rationally  for  what  follows;  while  one  of  the  best  ways  of 
measuring  the  preparation  is  to  estimate  the  growth,  joy 
and  worth  of  the  present  life.  This  point  of  view  is  funda- 
mental in  the  chapters  that  follow. 


II 

THE  UNITY  OF  HUMAN  LIFE 

The  most  important  fact  in  education  is  that  we  are 
dealing  always  with  a  world  of  persons.  Whatever  aim 
we  set  before  ourselves  can  be  realized  only  in  personality. 
It  is  this  that  makes  it  impossible  for  true  education  ever 
to  become  a  mechanical  process.  As  we  are  concerned 
with  persons,  and  must  seek  to  form  them  in  harmony 
with  some  ideal,  there  will  always  be  an  element  of  the 
unpredicted  and  incalculable  that  no  system  can  organize. 
It  is  the  most  promising  mark  in  the  'new  education'  that 
the  heart  of  the  whole  movement  is  a  deeper  reverence  for 
j9>ersons.  Thus  it  is  of  first  importance  that  we  should  see 
the  nature  and  characteristics  of  the  personal  world. 

The  fact  that  we  make  any  educational  effort  at  all 
implies  a  recognition  of  one  basal  truth  with  reference  to 
personality,  namely,  the  likeness  of  one  individual  to  all 
others  in  fundamental  elements  of  life.  It  is  solely  be- 
cause one  is  like  all,  that  science  in  dealing  with  personality 
is  possible.  If  each  individual  were  entirely  new  and  un- 
paralleled, no  body  of  law  would  be  discoverable,  no  general 
principles  could  be  laid  down,  and  education  would  become 
mere  artifice.  Yet  nothing  is  clearer  than  that  human 
nature  is  law-abiding.  Our  recognition  of  this  fact  is  the 
basis  of  half-a-dozen  modern  sciences;  and  most  recently 
the  studies  of  the  minds  of  children  have  shown  how  en- 
tirely they  obey  great  laws  in  their  development. 


\ 


18  MORAL   EDUCATION 

The  possibility  of  any  science  of  humanity  depends  upon 
the  fact  that  Hfe  is  universal  in  its  nature,  being  made  of 
few  and  simple  elements.  There  are  not  many  great  types 
of  experience  in  human  life;  and  most  of  us  pass  through 
them  all  in  some  form.  Birth  and  death,  love,  work, 
hunger  to  see  truth  and  appreciate  beauty,  struggle  and 
joy,  failure  and  suffering:  these  are  the  characteristic 
aspects  of  life  common  to  all  men.  Consider  how  few  are 
the  problems  upon  which  all  novels  and  dramas  rest. 
Half  at  least  of  these  works  of  art  deal  with  the  adjustment 
of  one  personality  to  another,  in  love;  while  the  rest  treat 
the  struggle  in  the  vocation,  the  effort  for  culture,  or  the 
problem  of  religious  faith.  Each  human  being  begins  at 
the  beginning  and  must  travel  over  much  of  the  same  path 
of  life  as  all  others.  We  come  out  of  the  dark  into  the 
light;  we  live  a  little  while  in  a  dream-world,  where  all 
forms  and  shapes  seem  larger  than  they  are  and  life  is 
transfigured  by  a  golden  or  gray  atmosphere;  we  pass  from 
play  that  is  an  imitation  of  life  to  a  vigorous  awakening  of 
personality  in  the  serious  business  of  living;  we  find  or 
sorrowfully  fail  to  find  our  work;  we  form  a  few  personal 
relations  that  bring  us  unguessed  joy  and  pain;  we  travel 
some  way  down  the  hill  of  life,  while  the  visions  of  the  great 
world  drop  away  more  and  more,  as  we  draw  toward  the 
shadowy  valley  of  ebbing  memories  that  dims  to  the  night; 
and  so  we  pass  again  into  the  gloom.  The  story  may  be 
shortened,  syncopated;  the  end  may  be  in  any  scene,  and 
whole  chapters  may  be  blotted  out;  but  how  much  the 
same  it  is  for  all! 

It  is  this  unity  of  the  human  spirit  that  makes  life  centre 
in  each  individual  in  every  place  in  the  world.  How  often 
as  one  travels  in  a  railway  train  and  passes  some  straggling 


THE   UNITY   OF  HUMAN   LIFE  19 

group  of  houses  huddled  together  with  a  few  trees,  in  the 
midst  of  a  dreary  plain  or  in  some  lonely  valley  shut  in  by 
the  hills,  one  feels  that  life  would  be  impossible  in  such  a 
place.  We  feel  that  we  should  suffocate  were  we  doomed 
to  live  there,  cut  off  from  the  great  world,  with  no  sense  of 
the  sweep  of  its  forces.  But  go  to  such  a  place  for  one 
week,  and  how  utterly  the  feeling  changes.  Nearly  every- 
thing in  human  life  is  there.  Not  only  love  and  work, 
ambition  and  failure,  but  relations  that  ramify  to  the  last 
corner  of  the  earth.  Look  into  the  post-bag  and  see  where 
the  letters  are  to  go  and  whence  they  come,  and  you  begin 
to  realize  that  the  village  is  a  nerve-centre,  a  little  one  it  is 
true,  not  a  great  central  brain  like  New  York  or  London, 
but  a  true  centre  nevertheless,  from  which  ramify  nerves  of 
connection,  motor  and  sensor,  throughout  the  human  world. 
Thus  life  becomes  not  only  endurable  but  intensely  inter- 
esting, in  the  most  isolated  community,  when  once  these 
nerves  of  communication  are  established  for  the  individual. 
Indeed,  if  one  be  not  awakened  to  the  need  of  the  larger 
world-life,  the  unity  of  human  experiences  and  the  vivid- 
ness with  which  they  are  realized  in  limited  environment 
may  give  the  local  community  a  charm  to  the  native 
dweller  that  no  vaster  centre  can  equal.  I  remember  the 
story  told  me  by  a  merchant  of  Florence  who  employed 
seventy-five  expert  wood-carvers  in  Prato,  ten  miles  away. 
He  suggested  to  the  foreman  that  the  workmen  should 
move  with  their  families  to  Florence  and  thus  be  in  closer 
touch  with  the  business,  with  a  saving  of  expense  to  all  con- 
cerned. ''Oh,  that  would  be  impossible,"  the  foreman 
replied,  "our  men  are  all  campanilisti;"  that  is,  they 
would  die  of  homesickness  if  they  tried  to  live  out  of  sight 
of  the  bell-tower  of  Prato!     Of  course  such  an  incident 


20  MORAL   EDUCATION 

is  characteristic  of  Italy  rather  than  America  today;  but 
it  serves  to  show  in  extreme  form  how  completely  life  cen- 
tres in  the  little  place  for  the  one  who  has  established  the 
relations  of  his  personality  there. 

Everyone  who  has  gone  up  and  down  the  Third  Avenue 
Elevated  in  New  York  must  have  looked  pityingly  into  the 
windows  of  the  cheap  lodging-houses  the  train  passes,  at 
the  forlorn  groups  of  shipv/recked  men,  huddled  in  winter 
about  the  one  stove  that  heats  the  putrid  air  of  the  loung- 
ing-room.  How  lost  they  seem — stranded  here  on  the 
edge  of  things  for  a  moment,  before  they  are  swept  down 
in  the  pitiless  but  all-hiding  sea.  Yet  could  we  enter  the 
consciousness  of  any  one  of  them  we  should  find  that  each 
is  the  centre  of  a  world  as  important  to  him  as  any  other's 
world  can  be  to  that  other.  Here  is  a  ;jvhole  network  of 
relations  ramifying  in  all  directions,  ambitions  broken  or 
half-fulfilled,  service  of  some  loved  one,  disappointment  in 
failure,  grief  at  death  or  separation,  faint  reaching  toward 
larger  hope,  and  dumb  brooding  over  the  dark  mystery  of 
it  all:   life  is  absolute  in  meaning  to  each  man  who  lives. 

The  charm  of  many  a  novel  of  the  hour,  dealing  with 
out-of-the-way  lives,  is  in  its  revelation  of  this  fact  that  all 
life  centres  in  each  one.  I  take  an  illustration  at  random : 
The  Biography  of  a  Prairie  Girl,  by  Eleanor  Gates.  ^ 
A  simple  story  of  a  little  girl  growing  up  on  a  remote 
Dakota  farm;  nothing  unusual  in  it:  merely  affection  for 
mother  and  brothers;  first-hand  contact  with  a  rude  nature 
world,  now  kindly,  now  treacherous;  intense  desire  for 
knowledge  and  thirst  for  humanity:  yet  how  it  brings  the 
tears  to  one's  eyes  and  stirs  the  pulses  with  the  thrill  of  the 
common  wonder  of  human  life. 

^  The  Century  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 


THE   UNITY   OF  HUMAN   LIFE  21 

One  is  like  all,  life  is  a  unity,  humanity  is  much  the  same 
in  all  its  expressions.  This,  indeed,  has  been  the  cry  of  the 
pessimist  everywhere.  It  is  because  "  there  is  no  new  thing 
under  the  sun,''  that  life  seems  to  him  such  a  vanity  and 
weariness.  The  same  round  is  repeated  over  and  over 
again.  ^  We  must  accept  this  premise  of  the  pessimist, 
but  we  need  not  accept  his  conclusion.  On  the  contrary, 
this  likeness  of  one  to  all  is  the  sole  basis  of  our  under- 
standing each  other.  Without  it,  there  would  be  no 
possibility  of  converting  the  experience  of  one  into  terms 
of  another's  life.  Thought,  emotion  and  will  are  known 
only  in  thinking,  feeling  and  doing.  We  divine  in  another 
an  activity  we  knov\^  already  in  ourselves,  by  recognizing 
external  signs  of  it  with  which  we  are  familiar. 

Thus  we  can  understand  only  that  to  which  we  are  re- 
lated. Mathematicians  tell  us  that  a  world  might  exist  in 
space  of  two  or  four  dimensions;  and  they  prove  their 
ability  to  construct  a  system  of  mathematics  for  such  a 

^  "One  generation  passeth  away,  and  another  generation  cometh: 
but  the  earth  abideth  forever. 

The  sun  also  ariseth,  and  the  sun  goeth  down,  and  hasteth  to  his 
place  where  he  arose. 

The  wind  goeth  toward  the  south,  and  turneth  about  unto  the 
north;  it  whirleth  about  continually,  and  the  wind  retumeth  again 
according  to  his  circuits. 

All  the  rivers  run  into  the  sea;  yet  the  sea  is  not  full:  unto  the 
place  from  whence  the  rivers  come,  thither  they  return  again. 

All  things  are  full  of  labor;  man  cannot  utter  it:  the  eye  is  not 
satisfied  mth  seeing,  nor  the  ear  filled  wdth  hearing. 

The  thing  that  hath  been,  it  is  that  which  shall  be;  and  that  which 
is  done  is  that  which  shall  be  done :  and  there  is  no  new  thing  under 
the  sun. 

Is  there  anything  whereof  it  may  be  said.  See,  this  is  new?  it  hath 
been  already  of  old  time,  which  was  before  us." — Ecclesiastes,  chapter 
I,  verses  4-10. 


22  MORAL   EDUCATION 

world.  ^  We  can  conceive  the  possibility  of  it,  but  we  can- 
not imagine  life  in  it;  for  were  there  such  a  world,  it  would 
be  non-existent  for  us,  since  we  are  built  on  the  plan  of 
space  in  three  dimensions. 

I  once  knew  a  man  who  had  apparently  no  ear  for  music. 
Possessing  every  opportunity  for  travel  and  culture,  he 
resented  the  fact  that  others  enjoyed  what  was  a  closed 
world  to  him.  So  he  set  to  work  to  study  music  from  the 
ground  up.  He  became  so  expert  that  he  could  take  to 
pieces  a  Wagner  opera  and  recompose  its  motifs.  He 
enjoyed  hearing  such  an  opera  rendered;  but  his  pleasure 
involved  scarcely  any  appreciation  of  music.  It  was  the 
pleasure  accompanying  the  intellectual  process  of  analysis 
and  synthesis,  the  kind  of  joy  one  has  in  working  a  difficult 
problem  in  calculus;  but  the  man  remained  almost  as 
deaf  to  music  as  before  he  undertook  the  course  of  training. 
I  realize  that  the  illustration  is  inadequate,  but  it  is  the  best 
I  can  give  to  show  that  all  appreciation  of  the  experience 
of  other  persons'  comes  through  reducing  it  to  the  common 
basis  from  which  they  and  we  alike  spring.  We  interpret 
other  lives  in  terms  of  our  own,  that  is,  in  terms  of  the 
universal  element  in  our  own. 

So  all  appreciation  of  literature,  all  reading  of  history 

^  Compare  C.  H.  Hinton,  The  Recognition  of  the  Fourth  Dimen- 
sion, Bulletin  number  XIV,  pp.  179-204,  of  the  Washington 
Philosophical  Society,  published  by  the  Society,  Washington,  1902. 
Mr.  Hinton's  paper  shows  the  impossibility  of  imagining  and  the 
difficulty  of  conceiving  a  fourth  dimension  of  space. 

Compare  also  E.  Jouffret,  Traite  Elementaire  de  Geometric  a 
Quatre  Dimensions  et  Introduction  a  la  Geometric  a  n  Dimensions. 
Gauthier-Villars,  Paris,  1903. 

An  interesting  little  book  called  Flatland;  A.  Romance  of  Many 
Dimensions,  By  a  Square,  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  Boston,  1899, 
attempts  to  imagine  life  in  space  of  two  dimensions  and  incidentally 
contains  much  bright  satire  on  human  life. 


THE   UNITY   OF  HUMAN   LIFE  23 

depends  upon  this  unity  of  human  Hfe.  This  is  Emerson's 
constant  thought,  expressed  in  his  greatest  essays,  as  those 
on  the  Over-Soul  and  History.^ 

"  I  am  the  owner  of  the  sphere, 
Of  the  seven  stars  and  the  solar  year, 
Of  Csesar's  hand,  and  Plato's  brain. 
Of  Lord  Christ's  heart,  and  Shakespeare's  strain."^ 

I  am  the  owner  of  all  this  because  the  potentiality  of 
humanity  is  wrapped  up  in  each  individual.  Give  us  time 
enough  and  opportunity  enough,  and  all  that  man  has  done 
is  our  possibility.  We  may  not  be  able  today  to  think 
Plato's  thought,  create  Shakespeare's  Hamlet,  or  live  with 
the  moral  sublimity  of  Lincoln;  but  give  us  eternity  and 
infinite  opportunity,  and  there  is  no  limit  to  our  possible 
growth  in  these  directions. 

Thus  the  first  truth  in  regard  to  the  human  personality 
is  that  one  is  like  all,  life  is  made  of  simple  elements  and 
its  great  experiences  are  common,  each  person  is  a  kind 
of  epitome  of  humanity,  able  therefore  to  appreciate  the 
lives  of  others. 


*  "  Of  the  universal  mind  each  individual  man  is  one  more  incar- 
nation. All  its  properties  consist  in  him.  Each  new  fact  in  his  pri- 
vate experience  flashes  a  light  on  what  great  bodies  of  men  have 
done,  and  the  crises  of  his  life  refer  to  national  crises." — Emerson, 
Essays,  First  Series,  p.  10.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1883. 

^  Emerson,  stanza  prefixed  to  the  Essay  on  History. 


Ill 

THE  UNIQUENESS  OF  EACH  PERSONALITY 

I  HAVE  pointed  out  how  easily  we  may  be  led  astray  by 
a  half-truth;  and  the  phase  of  the  personal  world  we  have 
been  studying  gives  us  just  such  a  partial  view.  It  is  true 
that  human  life  is  a  unity,  that  one  is  like  all,  but  it  is 
equally  true  that  each  person  is  in  some  measure  unlike 
any  other  that  ever  was  or  ever  will  be.  If  the  elements 
are  simple  and  universal,  the  form  they  take  is  unique 
in  each  individual.  Indeed,  this  principle  holds  of 
all  life.  Each  form  in  the  organic  world  is  unique. 
No  two  leaves  upon  a  tree  are  identical;  no  two  animals 
with  the  same  ancestry  are  just  alike.  The  element  of 
variation,  the  unexplained  basis  of  evolution,  shows  in 
every  life.  No  matter  how  thoroughly  we  may  know  the 
parents,  it  is  never  possible  to  predict  the  exact  character 
of  the  offspring  of  any  two  organisms.  The  new  life  is  sl 
fresh  combination  of  old  forces,  unlike  any  other.  In 
human  life  this  law  reaches  its  highest  expression.  No 
two  persons  have  just  the  same  heredity,  environment, 
experience.  We  must  all  struggle  with  the  same  problems, 
but  there  is  infinite  variety  in  the  form  they  take.  How 
rarely  in  practice  can  we  find  a  rule  to  fit  a  particular  case; 
we  may  discover  the  principle,  but  this  must  be  given 
fresh  application. 

As  the  likeness  of  one  to  all  makes  possible  our  under- 


THE   UNIQUENESS   OF   EACH   PERSONALITY  25 

standing  of  each  other,  so  the  uniqueness  of  each  per- 
sonality is  the  source  of  the  freshness  and  interest  of  hfe. 
Here  again  Nature  is  our  teacher.  She  is  always  original, 
because  she  never  strives  for  the  false  originality  of  nov- 
elty. She  does  not  ask:  " Can  I  afford  to  make  the  grass . 
green  and  the  skies  blue  another  year?  Shall  I  risk( 
another  season  of  violets?"  The  same  old  elements  are 
used  over  and  over  again,  yet  each  life  is  born  as  freshly 
out  of  the  old  as  if  no  such  life  had  ever  been  in  all  the  ages 
that  are  behind.  The  sun  glorifies  the  new  day  as  if  the 
sun  had  never  shone  before.  The  wild-flowers  of  this 
springtime  do  not  blush  that  wild-flowers  have  covered 
the  earth  for  innumerable  springs  that  have  gone.  And 
so  every  element  of  beauty  in  Nature  is  new,  original  and 
unparalleled. 

In  proportion  to  the  vigor  and  reality  of  life  is  the  same 
quality  true  of  humanity.  Life  is  original  in  every  ex- 
pression, and  the  problems  we  must  meet  are  as  if  they  had 
never  been  tried  before.  Our  struggle  is  no  less  absorb- 
ing because  men  have  struggled  with  the  same  kind  of 
diflSculties  for  so  long.  Our  love  means  no  less  to  us 
because  love  is  so  universal  a  fact  of  life.  Grief  stalks  into 
our  chamber  with  just  as  awful  a  power  as  if  grief  were 
not  common  to  all.     Indeed, 

"  Common  is  the  commonplace, 
And  vacant  chaff  and  empty  grain,"  ^ 

on  the  part  of  those  who  would  comfort  us  in  our  sorrow 
by  pointing  to  the  universality  of  the  experience.  Such 
comfort  merely  insults  our  grief;  and  the  people  who  offer 

*  Tennyson,  In  Memoriam,  canto  VI. 


26  MORAL   EDUCATION 

it  cannot  really  have  lived.     Byron  answers  them  in  that 
exquisite  elegy,  where  he  says : 

"Away!   we  know  that  tears  are  vain, 
That  Death  nor  heeds  nor  hears  distress: 
Will  this  unteach  us  to  complain  ? 
Or  make  one  mourner  weep  the  less  ? 
And  thou,  who  tell'st  me  to  forget, 
Thy  looks  are  wan,  thine  eyes  are  wet."  ^ 

Turn  again  to  the  Bowery  lodging-house  dwellers:  not 
only  is  the  same  humanity  present  in  every  one,  but  the 
world  of  each  is  unique.  All  may  be  hungry  and  cold  and 
broken,  but  the  particular  range  of  problems  and  relations 
each  must  meet  is  unparalleled  in  the  life  of  any  other. 

So  with  the  literature  that  reflects  and  interprets  life. 
We  have  seen  how  common  are  its  problems,  how  few  and 
universal  its  elements.  Yet  if  the  last  work  be  true  to 
life  and  born  freshly  out  of  the  heart  and  brain  of  a  real 
man,  it  is  new  and  appeals  to  us  as  if  its  problems  had  never 
been  met  before.  Consider  such  a  poem  as  the  Ulysses 
of  Stephen  Phillips.  How  few  are  its  emotions,  and  these 
as  old  as  humanity.  Moreover,  the  author  has  dared  to 
take  Homer,  whom  we  all  know,  and  relate  again  part  of  a 
story  as  old  as  Europe  and  familiar  to  every  school-boy. 
Yet  how  new  and  all-powerful  it  is!  ''There  are  but  few 
great  things  in  the  world,  and  they  are  all  here,"  exclaimed 
my  friend  as  we  finished  reading  the  poem  aloud  together. 
And  indeed  they  are  all  here:  hunger  for  wife  and  child 
and  home,  struggle  with  the  lust  of  selfish  desire,  manly 

*  From  Oh,  Snatched  Away  in  Beauty's  Bloom,  in  Hebrew 
Melodies, 


THE   UNIQUENESS   OF   EACH   PERSONALITY  27 

conflict  with  the  exigencies  of  a  despotic  fortune — the  great 
elements  of  Ufe,  old  as  humanity,  simple  as  childhood,  are 
there.     Yet  when  we  hear  Ulysses  cry : 


(( 


Ah  God !  that  I  might  see 
Gaunt  Ithaca  stand  up  out  of  the  surge, 
You  lashed  and  streaming  rocks,  and  sobbing  crags, 

Hi  4:  4:  :{:  4: 

I  am  an-hungered  for  that  human  breast 
That  bosom  a  sweet  hive  of  memories — 
There,  there  to  lay  my  head  before  I  die. 
There,  there  to  be,  there  only,  there  at  last!";  ^ 

or  hear  him  tell  how,  from  the  shore  of  Calypso's  Island, 
he 

"looked  o'er  the  wide  sea, 
And  softly  said, '  Little  Telemachus', "  ^ 

the  tears  come  to  our  own  eyes  and  we  thrill  to  the  old,  ever 
new  story  of  personal  life. 

''There  is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun;"  yes,  and 
there  is  nothing  under  the  sun  that  is  not  new,  fresh- 
born  out  of  the  Infinite,  unique,  unparalleled  by  any 
other  life.  These  are  the  two  balancing  truths  with  refer- 
ence to  the  human  personality,  each  of  which  must  be  inter- 
preted in  harmony  with  the  other  if  we  are  to  have  a  true 
perspective  in  dealmg  with  human  beings. 

Because  each  is  unique,  there  is  an  unavoidable  element 
of  experiment  in  all  human  life.     There  can  be  no  mechan- 

^  Stephen  Phillips,  Ulysses,  act  I,  scene  II,  pp.  65-66.    The  Mac- 
miUan  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

^  Ibid.,  act  III,  scene  I,  p.  131. 


28  MORAL   EDUCATION 

ical  application  of  rules  to  the  exigencies  of  experience. 
Life  continually  presents  unexpected  situations  and  com- 
binations of  old  elements  that  cannot  be  predicted.  If  we 
wait  to  know  how  to  live  before  we  begin,  we  never  begin. 
The  man  who  does  not  choose  his  vocation  until  he  knows 
all  about  the  different  callings  and  their  relation  to  his 
personality  dies  w^ithout  finding  his  work.  If  we  wait  to 
know  all  the  laws  of  personal  relationship  before  making 
friends,  we  live  friendless.  All  we  dare  ask  is  to  have  light 
enough  to  see  the  next  step,  and  then  we  must  take  that 
step  bravely,  trusting  that  if  we  do,  the  light  will  still 
be  one  step  in  advance. 

"Here  work  enough  to  watch 
The  Master  work,  and  catch 
Hints  of  the  proper  craft,  tricks  of  the  tool's  true  play."  ^ 

Indeed,  some  of  the  saddest  tragedies  are  those  of  people 
who  have  not  quite  dared  to  live.  Such  a  tragedy  of  nega- 
tion is  in  the  life  of  that  sensitive  poet-philosopher  Amiel, 
whose  Journal  even  in  its  English  dress  has  become  a 
classic,  expressing  as  it  does  the  extreme  of  a  peculiar 
type  of  experience.  Amiel  was  a  professor  at  the  univer- 
sity of  Geneva,  yet  he  never  dared  teach  his  own  life 
to  his  students,  and  so  he  read  over  year  after  year  a  dull 
routine  of  philosophical  lectures,  and  the  students  never 
dreamed  that  under  the  shell  of  the  scholastic  professor 
was  a  live  man,  hungering  for  love  and  truth,  yet  not  quite 
daring  to  live.  Even  Amiel's  personal  friends,  who 
thought  themselves  his  intimates,  never  knew^  him  until 
the  publication  of  his  Journal  after  his  death.     They  had 

'  Browning,  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra,  stanza  XVIII. 


THE   UNIQUENESS   OF   EACH   PERSONALITY  29 

supposed  him  cold,  but  in  reading  the  pages  of  his  Journal 
they  discovered  that  whenever  a  friendship  was  buddin^f 
between  Amiel  and  another,  he  was  so  conscious  of  all  the 
ways  in  which  he  might  disappoint  the  friend,  or  the  friend 
disappoint  him,  that  he  nipped  the  friendship  in  the  bud.^ 
It  is  a  way  of  existing  safely,  but  life  is  never  safe.  It 
may  be  very  safe  to  be  dead;  but  in  proportion  to  the 
vitality  and  depth  of  the  individual  spirit  .will  life  be  un- 
safe. The  more  vigorous  the  blood  that  courses  through 
the  veins,  the  larger  the  ambition,  the  more  tense  the 
aspiration  that  stirs  the  heart,  the  less  safe  life  will  be, 
for  the  greater  is  the  element  of  the  unexpected  and  incal- 
culable that  will  enter  into  it.  As  long  as  we  stay  moored 
to  the  regular  shore  of  negative  respectability  and  conven- 
tionality we  are  safe.  When  we  set  sail  on  the  untried 
ocean  of  life,  with  only  the  stars  of  God  and  the  compass 
of  our  own  instinct  to  guide  us,  there  will  be  days  and 
nights  when  the  heaven  is  clouded  and  we  cannot  see  the 
stars,  and  the  compass  of  our  instinct  may  point  any  other 
way  than  toward  the  north  star;  and  then  we  sail  wrong. 
But  unless  we  set  sail  v/e  reach  no  port  worth  while. 
Thus  education,  seeking  to  mold  personality,  has  to 

^  The  following  is  typical  of  many  passages  expressing  Amiel's 
self -analysis : 

"Family  life,  especially,  in  all  its  delightfulness,  in  all  its  moral 
depth,  appeals  to  me  almost  like  a  duty.  Sometimes  I  cannot 
escape  from  the  ideal  of  it.  A  companion  of  my  life,  of  my  work, 
of  my  thoughts,  of  my  hopes;  within,  a  common  worship,  towards 
the  world  outside,  kindness  and  beneficence;  educations  to  under- 
take, the  thousand  and  one  moral  relations  which  develop  round  the 
first — all  these  ideas  intoxicate  me  sometimes.  But  I  put  them 
aside,  because  every  hope  is,  as  it  were,  an  egg  whence  a  serpent  may 
issue  instead  of  a  dove,  because  every  joy  missed  is  a  stab;  because 
every  seed  confided  to  destinv  contains  an  ear  of  grief  which  the 
future  mav  develop." — Amiel's  Journal,  translated  by  Mrs.  Hum- 
phry Ward,  vol.  I,  pp.  18-19.  The  Macmillan  Co.,   New  York,  1896. 

or  THE  A 

VNIVERSJTY  ) 

\  ^^  / 


30  MORAL   EDUCATION 

deal  not  only  with  law-abiding  material,  with  certain  ele- 
ments common  to  all  life,  but  with  an  element  of  the  un- 
tried and  incalculable  resulting  from  the  unique  character 
of  each  personality.  Hence  education  must  be  both 
science  and  art.  It  must  discover  those  general  laws 
resulting  from  the  likeness  of  one  to  all,  but  it  must  ever 
recognize  that  science  should  flower  out  into  art,  since 
each  child  is  unique  in  personality.  Teaching,  like  living, 
is  an  art,  to  be  learned  only  in  practice,  involving  the  con- 
stant adjustment  of  one  personality  to  others  irregularly 
changing.  That  is  why  experience  counts  for  so  much 
with  the  teacher.  No  normal  school  or  university  in- 
struction can  compensate  for  the  lack  of  direct  contact 
with  children  and  of  the  concrete  insight  developing  from 
such  contact. 

If  either  one  of  the  balancing  principles  is  forgotten  the 
result  is  failure.  In  education  if  we  recognize  only  the 
science  that  depends  on  the  likeness  of  one  to  all,  the  re- 
sult is  dead  routine,  an  effort  to  cut  all  children  after  one 
pattern,  destructive  formalism.  If  we  realize  that  teaching 
must  be  an  art,  but  fail  to  base  it  upon  science,  we  lose  all 
guiding  principles,  fall  into  an  excessive  individualism 
where  art  becomes  artifice,  and  thus  work  from  one  thing 
to  the  next  without  aim  or  reason,  causing  the  school  to 
disintegrate. 

The  two  types  of  failure  are  perhaps  equally  complete, 
but  one  is  much  more  common  historically  than  the  other. 
Extreme  individualism  is  so  obviously  failure  that  it  tends 
to  correct  itself;  but  by  resting  on  those  elements  that  are 
common  to  all,  we  are  able  to  grind  out  a  certain  mechan- 
ical result  which  can  be  estimated  at  the  end  of  the  pro- 
cess; and  so  the  failure  may  pass  unrecognized,  or  even  be 


THE    UNIQUENESS   OF   EACH   PERSONALITY  31 

estimated  as  success.  Thus  the  relatively  constant  fail- 
ure  in  education  has  been  the  tendency  to  dead  formalism, 
while  the  other  error  has  appeared  only  sporadically. 
Therefore  we  must  seek  especially  to  reverence  the  per- 
sonality of  each  child  and  to  foster  its  natural  growth. 
It  is  necessary  to  base  the  individual  on  the  great  moral 
principles  common  to  all  men,  and  to  integrate  him  with 
humanity  by  leading  him  through  its  generic  experiences; 
but  with  this  unity  in  our  aim,  we  must  see  to  it  that  each 
child  becomes  an  independent  person,  free  and  intelligent 
in  self-control,  and  is  thus  equipped  for  the  art  of  living. 


IV 

THE  GROWTH-PROCESS  OF  HUMAN  LIFE 

I  HAVE  assumed  that  human  Hfe  is  a  developing  process, 
as  is  universally  conceded  today;  we  are  now  ready  to 
consider  the  nature  of  that  process  as  influencing  our  work 
in  education.  It  is  to  biology  we  owe  the  elaboration  and 
modern  statement  of  the  idea  of  evolution  which  has  trans- 
formed every  department  of  our  thinking,  including  our 
attitude  toward  children.  The  moment  we  recognize  that 
growth  is  not  mechanical  change,  but  the  unfolding  of  a 
higher  phase  of  life  out  of  a  lower  one,  the  passing  from  one 
plane  of  action  to  another,  we  have  a  conception  that  must 
affect  everything  we  try  to  do  in  education.  Obviously 
the  study  of  the  adult  will  not  enable  us  to  prescribe  food 
and  stimuli  for  the  mind  of  the  child;  each  phase  in  the 
process  must  be  studied  for  itself,  and  educational  influ- 
ences adjusted  to  its  specific  needs. 

This  problem  would  be  less  difficult,  if  the  process  were 
a  smooth  and  regular  one;  but  the  development  of  per- 
sonality never  goes  on  simply  in  a  straight  line.  Now 
one  element,  now  another,  may  spring  suddenly  into  active 
being.  A  brief  time  of  rapid  advance  may  be  followed 
by  a  long  period  when  the  elements  unfolded  may  have 
time  quietly  to  establish  themselves.  Recent  studies  of 
the  physical  development  of  children  have  shown  how 


THE    GROWTH-PROCESS    O-F   HUMAN   LIFE  33 

irregular  Is  growth  in  that  field/  and  the  same  imevenness 
is  present  in  the  mental  and  moral  life.  Here  a  world  of 
irregular  movements  is  evident,  now  one,  now  anotlier 
element  of  personality  asserting  itself,  until  the  whole 
growth-process  becomes  a  maze  of  acting  and  reacting 
forces.  It  is  this  that  makes  the  educational  problem  so 
perplexingly  difficult  as  sometimes  to  lead  us  to  despair 
of  its  solution.  Not  only  must  every  child  be  dealt  with 
as  an  individual,  but  every  phase  of  his  growth  must  be 
treated  individually.  The  first  question  in  education  is, 
Where  is  the  child  now;  and  until  this  has  been  asked 
and  answered  there  is  no  use  in  raising  any  other. 

If,  however,  mental  and  moral  development  is  irregular, 
it  is  none  the  less  law-abiding.  Though  each  individual, 
as  I  have  shown,  is  unique  in  his  expression  of  the  common 
elements  of  life,  still  the  mass  of  irregular  movements  falls 
into  certain  clearly  marked  periods.  This  is  due  to  that 
far-reaching  law  of  rhythm  which  applies  to  all  life  and 
possibly  to  all  movement.  Spencer  attempts  to  show  that 
motion  in  every  phase  of  the  inorganic  world,  from  the 
formation  of  a  crystal  to  the  evolution  of  a  solar  system, 
is  regulated  by  rhythm.^  Whether  this  be  accepted  or 
not,  certainly  all  life  is  ruled  by  this  law.  The  great  bio- 
logical types  would  seem  to  have  been  developed  in  com- 
paratively brief  periods,  v/hile  following  these,  long  ages 

'  See  the  somewhat  popular  review  of  the  facts  of  irregular 
physical  growth  in  chapters  II  and  III  of  Dr.  Oppenheim's  P%sica/ 
Development  of  the  Child. 

President  Hall's  recent  great  work  on  Adolescence  contains  the 
most  vast  and  thorough  collection  of  facts  in  this  connection  that 
has  yet  been  made.  Compare  especially  chapters  I  and  II  for  data 
illustrating  irregularities  in  physical  development. 

-  See  Spencer,  First  Princ>,ples,  chapter  X.  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
New  York,  1878.  < 


34  MORAL   EDUCATION 

were  required  to  establish  the  types.  A  forward  leap 
followed  by  an  extended  period  of  quiescence,  such  has 
been  apparently  the  law  of  movement  in  the  evolution  of 
organic  life. 

Unquestionably  this  is  the  principle  ruling  in  human 
history.  Throughout  the  past,  epochs  of  production  and 
epochs  uf  preparation,  periods  of  rapid  advance  and  periods 
of  slow  incubation,  ages  of  faith  and  quiet  acceptance  and 
ages  of  unquiet  doubt  and  investigation, — these  have  alter- 
nated. It  is  interesting,  too,  to  note  how  very  brief  rela- 
tively are  the  periods  of  production  and  expansion.  The 
crowning  time  of  the  Periclean  age  in  Greece,  of  the  re- 
naissance in  Italy,  of  the  Elizabethan  age  in  England,  is  in 
each  case  measured  by  less  than  a  hundred  years;  while 
each  of  these  epochs  is  preceded  and  followed  by  a  long  age 
of  preparation  and  incubation.  Ebb  and  flow  in  the  tides 
of  life:  ten  centuries  of  Christian  aspiration  and  one  of 
pagan  reaction,  the  sleep  of  the  middle  ages  and  the 
awakening  of  modern  life,  the  old  regime  and  the  French 
revolution — everywhere  the  law  holds  of  the  movements 
of  human  history — the  inspiration  and  expiration  of  the 
breath  of  life,  the  beating  of  the  universal  heart. 

It  is  this  law  which  applies  to  the  development  of  per- 
sonality. In  the  mass  of  seemingly  irregular  movements 
that  characterize  the  growth  of  the  individual  spirit,  it  is 
possible  to  trace  the  ebb  and  flow  in  the  tides  of  life. 
Times  of  sudden  awakening  and  times  of  quiet  expression, 
periods  of  forward  movement  and  periods  of  quiescence 
are  present  here  as  in  the  history  of  the  human  race,  the 
evolution  of  organic  life,  and  perhaps  in  the  formation  of 
the  universe  of  stars. 

Viewed  in  a  large  way  childhood  and  maturity  represent 


THE    GROWTH-PROCESS   OF  HUMAN   LIFE  35 

the  two  types:  the  one  the  age  of  rapid  growth,  the  other 
J  the  period  of  quiet  estabUshing  of  the  forces  of  Ufe  with 
ordered  expression.  Yet  each  of  these  breaks  up  into 
numerous  lesser  units  of  one  and  the  other  type.  Indeed, 
in  direct  proportion  to  the  vitaUty  and  growth  of  the  indi- 
vidual will  such  ebb  and  flood  tides  be  present.  The 
abortive  life,  early  hardening  down  into  fixed  lines,  the  life 
smothered  by  convention  and  negative  respectability,  may 
show  little  of  them;  but  the  spirit  full  of  human  poten- 
tiality, coming  ever  into  wider  relation  with  the  great 
world,  thirsting  for  life  and  continuing  to  grow  even  into 
old  age,  will  show  a  large  number  of  clearly  marked  move- 
ments of  action  and  reaction. 

Thus  such  movements  instead  of  deserving  our  suspicion 
and  efforts  at  suppression  should  be  welcomed  and  under- 
stood. That  absolute  regularity  which  is  the  ideal  of  the 
pedant  is  an  indication  of  the  choking  of  the  forces  of  life; 
and  the  irregular  movement  to  and  fro,  so  disconcerting 
to  our  plans  and  so  thwarting  to  the  success  of  our  pre- 
arranged system  of  culture,  is  the  highest  and  should  be 
the  most  welcome  indication  of  the  life  which  it  is  the  pur- 
pose of  education  to  foster.^ 

We  are  yet  far  from  understanding  even  the  typical 
periods  that  appear  normally  in  personal  development, 
but  we  have  learned  to  see  how  important  it  is  to  strive  to 

^  *'The  law  of  nascent  periods,  or  the  age  curve  of  growth  of  each 
organ  or  faculty,  is  one  of  the  first  desiderata  of  genetic  psA^chology ; 
how  to  apply  it,  by  what  means  and  to  what  degree  to  stimulate 
each  part  in  its  stage  of  most  and  least  rapid  growth,  and  how  to 
apportion  training  of  mind  and  body  between  developing  the  powers 
that  excel  to  a  degree  of  specialized  culture  that  corresponds  to 
their  hereditary  possibilities,  or  educating  the  weakest  parts  and 
powers  in  order  to  improve  proportion  and  symmetry',  is  one  of  the 
chief  problems  of  individual  pedagogy." — G.  Stanley  Hall,  Ado- 
lescence, voL  I,  p.  128, 


36  MORAL   EDUCATION 

understand  them.  Any  one  which  we  can  clearly  recog- 
nize will  serve  to  illustrate  how  completely  the  educational 
problem  centres  in  understanding  the  particular  phase  of 
development  the  individual  has  reached. 

For  instance,  there  seems  to  be  in  many  children  a 
definite  period  of  subsidence  in  mental  growth  about  the 
eighth  year.  This  by  no  m.eans  appears  clearly  in  the 
lives  of  all  children,  but  so  frequently  as  to  be  more 
than  an  individual  variation.  The  child  who  has  been 
going  forward  rapidly,  suddenly  becomes  stupid,  careless 
of  study  and  irresponsive  to  stimulus.  And  what  is  the 
result  ?  The  fond  parent  who  is  vain  of  the  child's  ability 
and  the  teacher  who  is  ambitious  for  results  unite  to  crowd 
the  child  on.  Stimulus  is  multiplied  at  home  and  at  school. 
The  parent  tells  the  teacher  the  child  has  done  well  in 
preceding  rooms  and  there  is  no  reason  why  he  cannot  do 
as  well  now.  The  teacher's  pride  is  hurt  and  energies 
are  redoubled  to  push  the  child  forward.  In  other  words 
everything  possible  is  done  to  force  the  child  across  the 
period  of  retarded  growth  at  the  same  speed  shown  in  the 
time  of  most  rapid  and  expansive  forward  movement. 

But  now  suppose  that  this  period  of  quiet  incubation  is 
nature's  provision  for  gathering  slowly  together  the  ener- 
gies of  life  for  the  great  forward  leap  in  the  period  of  transi- 
tion from  childhood  to  youth:  what  have  we  done? 
Crowded  sail,  only  to  crack  the  mainmast  and  strain  the 
ship;  forced  the  steam  until  the  engine  of  life  is  perhaps 
permanently   disabled.^     How  many    over    nervous    and 

^  President  Hall  (Adolescence,  vol.  I,  p.  44)  rejects  the  theory 
that  the  period  of  retarded  growth  occurring  between  the  eighth 
and  twelfth  year  means  a  husbanding  of  force  for  a  later  forward 
movement,  and  attempts  to  explain  the  retardation  on  the  basis  of 
xdCQ  historj\     The  educational  application  is  the  same,  however. 


THE   GR0WTH-PR0CP:S3   of   HUAIAN   life  37 

morbid  children,  drifting  in  a  sickly  way  through  the 
period  of  transition,  unable  to  respond  to  the  appeal 
of  that  epoch  of  life  and  come  forth  into  bounding 
manhood  and  womanhood,  are  sad  memorials  to  the 
successful  gratification  of  the  vanity  of  parent  and 
teacher.  Suppose  the  child  should  even  drop  out  of 
school  for  a  time  and  revert  to  mud  pies  and  sand 
houses,  forgetting  his  arithmetic  and  letting  his  soul  sleep 
in  a  calm  physical  life  like  an  unawakened  seed  in  the  soil 
— what  then?  This:  that  a  month  of  such  a  child's  time 
later  may  be  worth  a  year  of  the  over-strained  child's;  that  , 
acquirements  in  arithmetic  and  grammar  are  poor  tests  of 
the  worth  of  life.  Too  often  when  the  child  who  has  been 
allowed  to  sleep  his  two  years,  if  necessary,  strides  ahead 
of  his  neighbor  who  has  never  missed  a  school  day,  nor 
even  an  evening's  study  at  home,  w^e  regard  it  as  unusual 
talent  and  anomalous.  How  much  genius  is  simply 
health!  And  how  genius  might  be  multiplied  if  we  let 
Nature  take  us  into  her  confidence  and  followed  the  open 
secret  that  broods  over  the  spring  flowers. 

Take  another  example:  about  nine  or  ten  or  eleven  \ 
most  children  pass  into  an  awkward  age  which  to  the 
unsympathetic  observer  is  most  disagreeable.  The  growth 
is  irregular  and  the  feet  and  hands  are  too  large  for  the 
body.  The  child,  too,  is  just  becoming  conscious  of  them 
and  keeps  them  well  in  the  foreground — not  only  of  his 
consciousness,  but  of  the  stage  of  the  domestic  and*  social 
life.  In  the  same  way  his  words  are  too  big  for  his  ideas 
and  the  dawning  mental  life  expresses  itself  in  the  same 
awkward  way  as  the  physical.  And  thus  we,  who  for  years 
have  been  taking  the  child  into  the  drawing-room  to  show 
him  off  to  strangers,  now  send  him  out  of  the  room  with  a 


38  MORAL   EDUCATION 

sharp  word  or,  worse,  a  sarcastic  reference  to  his  awkward- 
ness. It  is  not  his  fault  that  he  wants  to  display  himself: 
we  have  taught  him  that;  until  now  he  comes  noisily  into 
the  room  with  the  high-pitched  voice  and  disagreeable 
behavior  that  children  use  to  attract  attention,  and  is 
irritating  enough  to  us.  But  as  it  was  our  vanity  that  dis- 
played the  younger  child,  so  it  is  our  vanity  that  is  hurt 
now;  and  if  for  once  we  were  to  follow,  not  the  whim  of  our 
pleasure,  but  the  good  of  the  child,  ought  not  our  treatment 
of  him  to  be  opposite  in  both  cases?  The  young  child, 
so  endlessly  attractive  to  us  because  of  the  mysterious 
dawning  of  the  soul  we  behold  in  him,  needs  nothing  else 
so  much  as  to  be  left  alone  to  establish  quietly  the  roots  of 
his  being  in  the  soil  of  affection.  Instead  of  jigging  him  till 
his  nervous  system  is  exhausted,  displaying  him  to  all 
comers,  and  compelling  him  to  go  over  and  over  his  small 
vocabulary  of  baby  words,  we  should  restrain  our  vanity 
and  let  him  lie  much  of  the  time  in  the  lap  of  his  nurse. 
Nature.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  the  child  in  the 
awkward  age  needs  nothing  else  so  much  as  companion- 
ship with  us  and  guidance  and  sympathy  through  the  period 
of  bungling  expression  until  one  of  natural  and  ordered  life 
is  reached.  The  child  who  is  over  conscious  of  his  hands 
and  feet  will  not  be  made  sweetly  unconscious  by  sarcasm, 
and  sharp  suppression  will  hardly  turn  awkward  words 
into  natural  and  beautiful  self-expression.^ 

Not  only  that:  the  very  awkwardness  is  a  clue  to  the 
needed  lessons.  With  the  first  consciousness  of  personality 
the  child  has  no  sense  of  proportion  and  is  irritatingly 
aggressive  in  the  assertion  of  opinion.     All  parents  know 

*  See  the  chapter  on  Ugly  DiickUngs,  in  Short  Studies  in  Char- 
acter, by  Sophie  Bryant,  pp.  173-186. 


THE   GROWTH-PROCESS   OF  HUMAN   LIFE  39 

the  case:  ''Now,  Mamma,  you  think  you  said  so,  but  I 
KNOW  you  didn't."  The  temptation  is  to  suppress  the 
child  as  vigorously  as  possible;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that 
impudence  must  be  suppressed — for  the  child's  sake. 
Yet  the  child  who  says  just  that  annoying  thing  is  ready 
to  recognize  for  the  first  time  that  two  people  may  come 
to  diametrically  opposite  opinions,  and  both  be  earnest  and 
intelligent.  The  true  lesson  of  toleration  can  now  be 
taught.  Hitherto  we  might  have  preached  about  it 
incessantly  and  the  child  could  not  have  understood; 
now  it  is  possible  to  develop  in  him  that  respect 
for  the  personality  and  opinions  of  others  that  gives  pro- 
portion and  beauty  to  intellectual  relationship.  Indeed, 
one  may  go  beyond  this:  the  child  is  also  ready  to  under- 
stand that  of  the  two  in  dispute  the  right  is  probably  with 
the  one  of  larger  experience:  probably,  not  certainly,  for 
sometimes  the  child  is  right  and  the  parent  wrong.  Such  \ 
cases  do  arise,  and  a  little  modesty  will  not  lessen  the 
parental  dignity. 

These  examples  out  of  the  multitude  that  might  be  given 
must  serve  to  show  how  all-important  is  the  law  of  periodi- 
city in  relation  to  child  Kfe.  The  problem  of  education  is 
not  to  lead  the  personality  along  such  a  process  as  can  be 
represented  by  a  straight  line,  but  to  seek  to  understand 
the  different  periods  of  development  and  adapt  our  educa- 
tional influences  to  the  successive  phases  of  movement 
througk  which  the  personality  passes.  This  must  be 
achieved  both  generally  and  individually.  It  is  necessary 
to  understand  the  typical  phases  in  the  growth  of  mind  and 
spirit  through  which  all  children  tend  to  pass,  and  also, 
among  the  innumerable  modifications  of  these,  those  pre- 
sented by  the  specific  children  with  whom  we  must  deal. 


THE  TWO  PRINCIPLES  OF  MORAL  EVOLUTION 

The  law  of  periodicity  applies  to  every  phase  of  human 
development.  I  wish  ,to  consider  more  nearly  the  aspects 
of  moral  growth  that  most  concern  us  in  education. 
There  are  two  principles  conditioning  growth  in  this  field 
for  the  individual  and  the  race  alike.  The  first  is,  the 
gradual  substitution  of  an  integrating  end  of  conduct,  for 
the  mere  full  or  push  of  desire,  as  the  cause  of  action.  If 
we  turn  to  the  animal  world  we  find  action  occurring 
largely  as  the  immediate  expression  of  desire.  The  brute 
is  hungry,  it  seeks  and  slays  its  food,  and  lies  down  in  the 
sleep  of  satiety.  Where  the  satisfaction  of  immediate 
desire  is  postponed,  this  is  usually  due  to  instincts  which 
have  been  established  by  ages  of  biological  selection,  and 
rarely  indicates  conscious  reason.  Primitive  man  must 
have  been  largely  upon  the  same  plane,  as  is  evident  from 
the  lowest  races  today.  The  whole  history  of  mankind 
in  this  aspect  is  the  record  of  the  steady  growth  of  obe- 
dience to  a  rationalizing  aim,  as  against  the  immediate 
response  to  the  whim  of  desire  or  the  inhibition  of  the  latter 
merely  through  blind  instinct. 

The  importance  of  this  is  evident  when  we  see  that  action 
is  rationalized  and  unified  by  being  directed  consciously 
toward  some  aim.  Even  a  lower  purpose,  such  as  seeking 
the  accumulation  of  wealth,  will  lead  a  man  to  forego 


THE  TWO   PRINCIPLES   OF  MORAL   EVOLUTION  41 

countless  pleasures  and  deny  whole  ranges  of  natural 
desire.  Thus  his  days  are  organized  into  what  is  relatively 
a  unity  even  though  the  end  is  unworthy.  The  higher  the 
aim  the  more  complete  will*  be  the  resulting  unity  and 
rationality  of  the  life. 

It  is  evident  that  in  this  race  progress  we  are  still  far 
indeed  from  the  conclusion.  With  the  majority  of  human 
beings,  much  of  the  time,  action  is  still  due  to  the  accident 
of  desire  in  the  moment,  or  to  instincts,  without  the  regula- 
tion of  conscious  reason.  Yet  surely  we  can  see  what  the 
end  of  the  process  would  be :  life  so  wholly  devoted  to  one 
supreme  end  that  all  momentary  desires  would  be  affirmed 
or  denied  according  as  they  were  or  were  not  in  harmony 
with  the  dominant  aim;  and  thus  the  whole  life  would  be 
made  one  rational  unity.  This  does  not  mean  that  desire 
and  instinct  would  ever  cease  to  be  springs  of  action,  but 
only  that  they  would  be  brought  completely  under  the 
regulation  of  reason. 

The  process  that  is  evident  in  the  life  of  the  race  is  re- 
peated in  the  individual.  The  baby  is  hungry  and  cries 
for  food ;  he  eats  aiid  sleeps.  The  little  child  affirms  each 
desire  as  it  comes,  except  as  he  is  restrained  by  other  per- 
sons. Only  very  slowly  are  we  able  to  lead  children  to 
postpone  or  deny  their  desires,  and  so  to  help  them  to 
obey  significant  aims.  In  its  more  intellectual  aspect  the 
chief  work  of  moral  education  is  to  do  just  this,  until  in 
the  end  the  individual  is  made  wisely  and  consistently 
obedient  to  the  highest  aim  he  can  see. 

The  importance  of  this  phase  of  moral  development  is 
shown  in  the  fact  that  when  the  mature  life  renounces  all 
reasonable  aims  and  gives  itself  over  to  the  immediate 
gratification  of  capricious  desire,  it  degenerates  into  what 


42  MORAL   EDUCATION 

is  immoral  instead  of  non-moral  as  with  the  undeveloped 
life.  Goethe  has  made  a  study  of  this  problem  in  Faust. 
Mephistopheles  is  ''the  spirit  that  denies/'  Intellectually 
he  represents  the  scoffing  denial  of  all  reason  in  the  uni- 
verse; but  practically  he  becomes  the  guide  to  the  life  of 
careless  sensuality.  In  this  Goethe  means  to  show  that 
the  worst  form  of  denial  is  not  in  the  inteWect,  but  in  living 
as  if  there  were  no  reason  or  law  in  the  universe,  and  so 
seeking  to  satisfy  merely  the  changing  caprice  of  the  mo- 
ment. As  the  degenerate  life  is  always  repulsive,  while  the 
yet  undeveloped  is  innocent,  Faust's  irrational  living  is  as 
ugly  as  capricious  childhood  is  charming.  Mephistopheles 
is  therefore  right  in  exclaiming: 

"Verachte  nur  Vernunft  und  Wissenschaft, 
Des  Menschen  allerhochste  Kraft, 
Lass  nur  in  Blend-  und  Zauberwerken 
Dich  von  dem  Liigengeist  bestarken, 
So  hab'  ich  .dich  schon  unbedingt;"^ 

for  Faust's  abandonment  of  all  reasonable  aims  is  an 
abrogation  for  himself  of  one  of  the  most  precious  fruits 
of  moral  evolution. 

Thus  moral  education  must  lead  the  child  through  the 
natural  process  of  growth  in  substituting  an  aim  of  con- 
duct for  the  pressure  of  desire.  As  all  development  is 
irregular,  so  the  ebb  and  flow  in  the  tides  of  the  moral  life 

*  Faust,  part  I,  scene  IV;  in  Bayard  Taylor's  translation: 
"Reason  and  Knowledge  only  thou  despise, 
The  highest  strength  in  man  that  lies ! 
Let  but  the  Lying  Spirit  bind  thee 
With  magic  works  and  shows  that  blind  thee. 
And  I  shall  have  thee  fast  and  sure!" 


THE   TWO   PRINCIPLES   OF   MORAL   EVOLUTION  43 

give  US  certain  periods  when  the  awakening  to  the  great 
aims  of  Ufe  proceeds  at  a  rapid  rate.  It  is  our  business 
as  educators  to  watch  for  these  precious  times  and  utiUze 
them  to  the  full  when  they  come. 

The  second  principle  of  moral  evolution  is  the  gradual 
extension  of  sympathy,  or  of  the  personality,  over  nn  ever-  -.? 
widening  area  of  life,  so  that  the  individual  comes  to  feel  the  ' 
pain  and  joy  of  all  other  lines  as  someivJiat  like  his  own. 
In  the  race  this  process  begins  far  below  the  human  plane 
with  the  first  glimmerings  of  instinctive  motherhood. 
The  mother,  even  the  brute  mother,  reaches  out  over  her 
offspring,  as  it  were,  and  feels  its  pain  or  pleasure  as  at 
least  vaguely  her  own.  In  the  earliest  human  life  this 
mutual  sympathy  has  already  loosely  unified  the  entire 
family  group.  Gradually  it  is  extended  over  the  clan  and 
the  tribe.  By  and  by  it  includes,  though  tending  to  be 
less  intense  as  it  expands,  the  nation  or  race;  and  ulti- 
mately even  these  limits  are  broken  down,  so  that  all 
humanity  is  gathered  up  in  at  least  a  dim  way  in  the  con- 
scious sympathy  of  the  individual. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  how  far  we  are  from  the  end 
of  this  process.  We  can  take  up  our  newspaper  in  the 
morning  and  almost  hope  that  there  has  been  a  battle  in 
China  or  Turkey  because  it  makes  such  interesting  read- 
ing. Let  a  flood  occur  a  thousand  miles  away  and  our 
sympathies  are  touched,  but  let  it  happen  with  the  river 
beside  which  we  live  and  we  are  shocked  almost  beyond 
endurance.  Differences  of  time  and  space  and  race  still 
influence  deeply  the  extension  of  our  sympathy,  of  our 
personality,  both  in  intensity  and  in  reach,  over  other  areas 
of  life;  yet  surely  we  can  see  what  the  end  of  the  process 
would  be,  could  we  attain  it:  a  sympathy  so  fine  and 


44  MORAL   EDUCATION 

inclusive  that  the  joy  or  sorrow  of  any  other,  existent  to- 
day or  to  be  tomorrow,  v/ould  be  felt  as  like  our  own. 
This  would  indeed  be  *  loving  our  neighbor  as  ourself/ 

This  process  of  growth  must  also  be  repeated  in  the 
individual  if  he  is  to  reach  a  matured  moral  life.  Little 
children  are  relatively  non-moral  rather  than  moral  or  im- 
moral. Much  that  we  used  to  regard  as  an  evidence  of 
'  total  depravity '  in  them  is  now  seen  to  be  due  to  a  lack  of 
extension  of  personality  over  other  lives.  When  children 
torture  a  younger  playmate,  it  is  rarely  conscious  cruelty, 
but  a  lack  of  realization  that  the  child  suffers.  When  a 
boy  ties  a  tin  can  to  a  dog's  tail,  and  then  jumps  with  glee 
to  see  the  dog  go  bounding  down  the  street,  it  does  not 
often  mean  joy  in  giving  pain.  The  child  has  not  yet 
reached  out  in  sympathy  to  appreciate  the  dog's  distress 
as  something  like  his  own.  Were  we  not  conscious  that 
the  dog  suffered  we  might  enjoy  the  sight  also.  The  dog 
runs  wildlv,  the  tin  can  resounds  as  it  strikes  the  stones, 
it  is  interesting  to  see  what  will  happen  next;  but  the  pleas- 
ure we  might  take  in  the  unusual  spectacle  is  excluded  by 
the  fact  that  we  are  conscious  of  the  brute's  suffering. 
Obviously  the  cure  for  the  boy  is  to  waken  him  to  sym- 
pathy with  the  dog;  and  then,  indeed,  to  repeat  the  tor- 
ture would  mean  malicious  cruelty. 

A  friend  gave  me  recently  a  striking  illustration  of 
this  principle.  She  said  that  when  she  and  her  brother 
were  children  they  invented  a  very  interesting  game. 
About  dusk  they  tied  a  dark  thread  from  a  tree  at  the  edge 
of  the  sidewalk  to  the  top  of  their  hedge  just  in  line  with 
a  man's  hat.  As  the  men  were  hastening  home  from  work, 
suddenly  their  hats  rolled  in  the  gutter,  with  no  apparent 
cause.     The   children    could    hardly   restrain    their   glee 


THE   TWO    PRINCIPLES    OF   MORAL    EVOLUTION  45 

sufficiently  to  avoid  discovery.  But  suddenly  they  heard 
the  step  of  their  dearly-loved  grandfather.  They  were 
filled  with  horror  at  the  idea  that  his  hat  might  roll  in  the 
gutter,  and  he  be  humiliated  and  distressed.  So  they 
hastened  and  got  the  thread  down  just  in  time  and — it  was 
never  put  up  again. 

The  meaning  is  plain :  the  children  had  entered  into  their 
grandfather's  spirit  so  that  they  realized  his  experiences 
from  within.  They  felt  sympathetically  the  annoyance 
he  would  experience  were  his  hat  knocked  off.  Through 
this  appreciation  of  the  grandfather's  feeling  the  children 
realized  the  experience  of  the  men  who  were  strangers 
to  them.  Thus  the  game  could  no  longer  be  attractive 
to  an  unspoiled  child.  To  continue  it  with  a  con- 
sciousness of  the  humiliation  it  caused  its  victims  would 
have  been  real  malice. 

Thus  the  problem  of  education,  here  as  in  the  first 
aspect  of  moral  evolution,  is  to  lead  the  child  on  in  the 
normal  process  of  growth.  The  cure  for  the  harmful 
actions  that  spring  from  a  lack  of  sympathy  with  the  ex- 
periences of  others  is,  less  repression  of  the  action,  than  the 
wakening  of  an  appreciation  that  makes  the  action  impos- 
sible. An  illustration  of  the  power  of  education  in  thus 
influencing  practical  conduct  is  found  in  a  field  somewhat 
aside  from  the  ordinary  range  of  ethical  problems.  A  de- 
cided increase  in  the  number  of  song-birds  has  been  evi- 
dent during  the  last  ten  or  twenty  years  in  certain  sections 
of  the  country,  in  spite  of  the  steady  growth  of  population. 
The  cause  of  this  is  not  only  the  growth  of  park  systems, 
but  much  more  the  nature-study  in  our  schools.  Children 
have  been  brought  into  such  sympathy  with  bird  life  that 
the  careless  robbing  of  nests  and  stoning  of  birds  ceases 


46  MORAL   EDUCATION 

to  be  attractive  to  an  unspoiled  child.  The  action  that  was 
non-moral  becomes  immoral,  and  its  presence  in  an  edu- 
cated child  means  either  an  unusually  retarded  develop- 
ment or  a  distinct  moral  perversion.  I  may  add  that 
much  of  the  cruelty  to  animals  and  human  weaklings  on 
the  part  of  rather  childlike  races  should  be  interpreted  in 
the  same  way. 

The  growth  of  conscious  sympathy  obeys  the  general 
law  of  periodicity,  advancing  in  irregular  waves  in  certain 
epochs  of  development.  In  both  aspects  of  the  moral  life 
education  must  seize  upon  the  right  moment,  utilizing  every 
influence  to  stimulate  and  guide  a  natural  process  of 
growth.  It  is  therefore  that  the  work  of  education  seems 
so  subordinate  and  even  incidental  in  character.  Life 
and  Nature  educate  far  more  effectively  than  we  can  ever 
hope  to  do.  To  try  to  usurp  the  place  of  the  great  natural 
forces  would  be  attempting  to  make  the  child  artificially^ 
instead  of  helping  him  grow.  Yet  our  work,  if  supple- 
mentary in  character,  is  none  the  less  important,  since 
through  it  we  can  determine  in  a  large  degree  the  response 
of  the  individual  to  those  vaster  influences  that  come  from 
life  itself.  It  is  really  comparatively  small  margins  of 
difference  that  determine  success  and  failure  in  moral 
life  as  in  all  other  phases  of  human  living;  and  the  fact 
that  these  margins  are  partly  within  our  control  gives  an 
absolute  importance  to  our  work  in  guiding  and  fostering 
the  natural  development  of  children  in  the  two  great 
aspects  of  moral  evolution. 


VI 


THE    RELATION    OF    MORAL    CULTURE    TO 
OTHER  ASPECTS  OF  EDUCATION 

So  FAR  we  have  been  considering  the  growth-process 
of  human  Hfe  itself,  the  material  with  which  we  must  deal 
m  education;  we  are  now  ready  to  define  more  nearly  the 
problem  of  moral  culture.  The  supremacy  of  the  ethical 
interest  in  human  life  is  perhaps  the  point  of  most  general 
agreement  among  philosophers  of  all  schools.  If  Aris- 
totle's argument  as  to  the  central  importance  of  ethics 
among  the  sciences^  is  not  accepted  by  all,  nevertheless 
its  practical  import  is  universally  recognized,  since  in 
human  living  all  other  problems  converge  upon  ethical 
problems.  The  question  as  to  the  worth  of  any  tool, 
equipment,  skill  or  opportunity  can  be  answered  only  by 
estimating  its  effect  on  manhood  and  womanhood.  Our 
statement  of  the  aim  of  life  is  always  the  formulation 
of  our  highest  ethical  conception.  The  basal  laws  of 
life  are  all  moral  in  meaning. 

It  is  therefore  impossible  to  separate  conduct  into  two 
parts,  one  of  which  we  regard  as  moral  in  imj)ort,  the  other 
as  indifferent.  Even  Spencer  makes  the  common  mis- 
take of  attempting  this  separation;^  yet  the  moment  he 
begins  to  illustrate  how  easily  actions  we  regard  as  in- 

*  See  the  Nicomachean  Ethics,  book  I,  chapters  I  and  II. 

*  Compare  Spencer,  The  Data  of  Ethics,  chapters  I,  III,  XVI. 


48  MORAL   EDUCATION 

different  may  take  on  a  moral  import  when  we  consider 
their  less  immediate  relations,  his  own  argument  implies 
that  the  smallest  element  of  seemingly  indifferent  action 
would  have  an  ethical  significance  if  we  considered  it  in 
relation  to  the  whole  of  life.  It  is  true,  only  a  small  part 
of  our  action  is  consciously  moral;  but  it  is  the  character- 
istic of  all  human  conduct,  conscious  or  unconscious, 
that  it  is  never  morally  indifferent,  but  will  always 
mean  something  for  good  or  evil.  Even  the  details  of 
the  physical  life,  eating,  walking,  sleeping,  which  have 
become  largely  unconscious  habit,  must  help  or  hinder 
the  realization  of  the  great  aims  of  life.  Indeed,  a  very 
important  ethical  question,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  subse- 
quent chapter,  is  just  how  far  it  is  v/ise  to  relegate  these 
activities  to  the  control  of  automatism,  how  far  there 
should  be  a  regulating  supervision  on  the  part  of  our 
conscious  reason. 

Thus  every  natural  law  is  moral  in  its  import  the  mo- 
ment we  consider  it  in  relation  to  the  aims  and  welfare  of 
human  life.  Take  the  simplest  of  natural  principles, 
gravitation,  the  law  that  holds  the  last  star-dust  in  place: 
it  is  a  moral  obligation  on  the  builders  of  every  house  to 
construct  it  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  gravitation,  that  it 
may  not  fall  and  crush  those  who  dwell  or  meet  within  it. 
It  is  the  figurative  obverse  of  this  truth  Wordsworth  utters 
when  he  exclaims  in  the  Ode  to  Duty: 

''Thou  dost  preserve  the  stars  from  wrong; 
And  the  most  ancient  heavens  through  thee  are  fresh  and 
strong:'* 

Carlyle  touches  the  same  truth  when  he  says:  "A  false 


THE  MORAL  ELEMENT  IN   EDUCATION  49 

man  found  a  religion  ?  Why  a  false  man  cannot  build  a 
brick  house.  If  he  do  not  know  and  follow  truly  the  prop- 
erties of  mortar,  burnt  clay  and  what  else  he  works  in, 
it  is  no  house  that  he  makes,  but  a  rubbish  heap.  *  *  * 
A  man  must  conform  himself  to  nature's  laws,  he  verily  in 
communion  with  nature  and  the  truth  of  things,  or  nature 
will  answer  him,  no  not  at  all!"  ^ 

As  a  further  illustration  of  the  moral  import  of  every 
natural  law  the  moment  we  consider  it  in  connection  with 
the  ends  of  human  life,  take  the  laws  of  physical  health, 
simple  natural  principles  applying  alike  to  man  and  other 
animals;  The  moment  we  recognize  that  the  body  is  the 
temple  and  instrument  of  the  mind,  these  laws  take  on  a 
moral  meaning.  It  is  as  much  our  duty  to  obey  them  as 
to  be  honest  in  business;  and  avoidable  illness,  vain  as 
people  are  of  it,  is  as  disgraceful  as  any  other  form  of 
vice. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  in  English  we  use  the  word  law  in 
two  very  different  senses.  In  the  purely  legal  use,  we 
mean  by  the  word,  a  rule  or  principle  laid  down  by  some 
authority.  ,  In  science,  however,  we  use  the  word  law  to 
signify  *an  observed  order  of  sequence  among  facts.' 
Moral  laws  are  usually  mistakenly  regarded  as  falling 
under  the  first  head;  yet  while  to  those  holding  a  certain 
religious  belief  further  sanctions  of  morality  may  be  super- 
added by  a  divine  or  other  authority,  the  laws  themselves 
are  not  so  superadded,  but  are  in  the  nature  of  life  itself. 
They  are  the  basal  principles  on  which  we  are  built  and 
in  harmony  with  which  we  must  live  if  we  would  grow, 
serve,  and  be  happy.  All  moral  laws  are  natural,  that  is, 
they  are  in  the  nature  of  hfe;  while  all  natural  laws  are 

^  Carlyle,  Heroes  and  Hero-Worship,  lecture  II. 


50  MORAL   EDUCATION 

moral  in  import  the  moment  we  regard  them  in  relation  to 
the  aims  and  welfare  of  human  beings. 

As  it  is  impossible  to  divide  either  conduct  or  law  into 
two  parts,  one  moral  the  other  natural  or  indifferent  in 
meaning,  so  is  it  with  education.  We  cannot  separate 
moral  culture  from  other  aspects  of  education,  as  a  distinct 
part  of  the  whole;  but  rather  every  phase  of  education  has 
its  moral  import.  Indeed,  we  may  go  so  far  as  to  say 
that  the  worth  of  any  aspect  of  education  can  be  esti- 
mated only  as  we  find  its  relation  to  the  development 
of  good  manhood  or  womanhood.^  Thus  moral  culture 
is  the  integrating  centre  and  interpretative  end  in  all 
education. 

Therefore  physical,  emotional,  intellectual  culture  is 
good  only  if  utilized  by  a  good  person.  A  strong  ?>jid  sup- 
ple body  is  a  splendid  instrument,  but  it  may  be  used  for 
bad  ends  as  well  as  good.  Emotional  sensitiveness  is  so 
much  capacity  for  life;  but  it  may  be  made  a  means  of 
decadent  self-indulgence  as  well  as  a  doorway  to  the  appre- 
ciation of  humanity.  Intellectual  and  executive  skill  is 
power  that  may  be  used  either  helpfully  or  harmfully. 
Indeed,  one  of  the  crying  evils  in  our  own  land  is  the  extent 
to  which  men  of  great  intellectual  and  executive  ability 
are  willing  to  use  their  power  for  purely  selfish  ends,  some- 
times even  in  direct  violation  of  the  public  welfare.  Thus 
the  greater  the  power  and  training,  the  more  harmful  to 
the  social  whole  will  be  their  use  when  directed  toward 
bad  ends.     Plato  pointed  out  long  ago  that  the  worst  men 

^  "As  the  highest  purpose  of  man,  and  consequently  of  education 
we  universally  recognize  morality.  He  who  should  deny  this  would 
not  really  know  what  morality  is;  at  least,  he  would  have  no  right 
to  take  part  in  this  discussion." — Herbart,  The  A  B  C  of  Sense 
Perception,  translated  by  Eckoff,  p.  93. 


THE  MORAL  ELEMENT  IN  EDUCATION  51 

are  the  corruption  of  those  who  might  have  been  the  best.^ 
The  same  force  of  personahty  that  made  them  go  far  on 
the  path  of  crime  would  have  made  them  the  more  service- 
able to  humanity  had  their  native  energies  been  rightly 
controlled  and  directed.  We  say  "a  good  workman  is 
known  by  his  tools;"  but  to  put  well- sharpened  tools  into 
the  hands  of  a  fool  or  a  criminal  is  to  endanger  the  safety 
of  the  community.  Skill  in  penmanship  will  make  a  bank 
clerk  more  useful  or  a  forger  more  successful.  Insight  into 
human  nature  and  shrewdness  in  dealing  with  men  will 
add  to  the  practical  effectiveness  of  a  reformer  or  the  harm- 
fulness  of  a  swindler.  Thus  there  is  no  meaning  in  educa- 
tion unless  it  converge  on  moral  education,  and  all  culture 
and  training  must  be  interpreted  in  terms  of  the  manhood 
that  is  to  utilize  them  for  the  purposes  of  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  every  element  of  education  has  some 
reaction  on  character.^  The  gymnastic  that  makes  you 
hold  your  head  up  tends  to  straighten  your  moral  behavior; 
discipline  in  clear  thinking  makes  for  ethical  sincerity; 
while  all  cultivation  of  the  imagination  and  emotions  ren- 
ders us  more  responsive  to  ideals  and  appreciative  of  other 
persons.     Beyond  this  inevitable  reaction,  when  any  phase 

^  "And  may  we  not  say,  Adeimantus,  that  the  most  g:ifted  minds, 
when  they  are  ill-educated,  become  pre-eminently  bad?  Do  not 
great  crimes  and  the  spirit  of  pure  evil  spring  out  of  a  fulness  of 
nature  ruined  by  education  rather  than  from  any  inferiority,  whereas 
weak  natures  are  scarcely  capable  of  any  very  great  good  or  very 
great  evil?" — Plato,  Republic,  translated  by  Jowett,  book  VI, 
section  491. 

2  <<  jf  *  *  *  ^j^g  teacher  succeeds  in  bracing  aright  any  mental 
power — be  it  purely  intellectual  or  of  some  other  class — he  does  by 
that  act  remove  one  important  obstacle  to  the  success  of  the  pro- 
cesses by  which  he  would  directly  strengthen  the  Moral  Nature  of  the 
Child, and  enlarge  its  capacities."— J.  P.  Xichol,  Moral  Training  in 
our  Common  Schools,  p.  44. 


52  MORAL   EDUCATION 

of  education  is  brought  into  sound  relation  with  the  whole, 
and  so  made  to  converge  upon  the  moral  centre,  it  con- 
tributes an  indispensable  element  to  moral  character. 
Take  the  simplest  and  most  fundamental  of  all  forms  of 
education — physical  culture.  How  necessary  a  sound  body 
is  to  moral  living.  To  be  sure,  the  heroic  struggle  to  rise 
above  some  painful  physical  limitation  may  give  a  sweet- 
ness and  beauty  of  character  rarely  obtainable  otherwise; 
nevertheless,  every  bodily  disease  and  disturbance  is  just 
so  much  handicap  to  the  moral  life.  It  is  all  but  impos- 
sible to  have  *a  sane  mind'  unless  it  is  'in  a  sound  body.' 
Indigestion,  nervous  irritability,  physical  depression,  slug- 
gish organic  functioning:  what  obstacles  they  are  to  sane 
ethical  living!^  Thus  the  problem  of  giving  the  child  a 
healthy,  sanitary  physical  environment,  good,  simple  food, 
rational  exercise,  bodily  culture,  wise  medical  care  when 
needed,  is  distinctly  a  moral  problem,  indeed,  is  a  basal 
element  in  moral  education.^ 

So  with  the  cultivation  of  the  imagination  and  the  emo- 
tions. Much  of  the  evil  of  human  life  comes  from  the 
inability  to  *put  yourself  in  his  place.'  A  cultivated 
imagination  is  the  basis  of  altruism;  and  a  sensitive  emo- 

^  "  Though  far  from  fond  of  paradoxical  expressions,  vre  are 
tempted  to  say  that  a  good  diet  is  a  necessary  part  of  a  good  edu- 
cation; for  in  one  very  important  sense  it  is  emphatically  true. 
In  the  great  body  of  the  people  all  education  is  impotent  with- 
out  it." — James  5Iill,  Essay  on  Education,  p.  29. 

"Sickly  natures  feel  themselves  dependent,  robust  ones  dare  to 
will.  Therefore  the  care  of  health  is  essentially  a  part  of  the  forma- 
tion of  character,  though  without  belonging  to  the  science  of  educa- 
tion, where  even  the  first  principles  for  that  care  are  wanting." — 
Herbart,  Science  of  Education,  translated  by  Felkin,  p.  218. 

^  See  an  excellent  chapter  on  Physical  Training  a  Means  of  Mental 
and  Moral  Training,  in  The  Spirit  of  the  New  Education  by  Louisa 
P.  Hopkins. 


THE   MORAL   ELEMENT   IN   EDUCATION  S3 

tional  life  is  the  requisite  for  all  response  to  moral  ideals. 
Personal  appreciation,  the  power  to  enter  into  the  lives  of 
other  people  and  to  realize  how  they  react  upon  the 
changing  and  the  permanent  factors  of  experience,  is  an 
element  of  central  importance  in  the  kind  of  character 
moral  education  should  seek  to  foster. 

Equally  important  for  moral  character  is  the  cultivation 
of  the  reason.  Sound  intellectual  judgment  is  necessary 
in  every  department  of  human  life.  There  are  few  men 
more  injurious  to  the  world  than  the  well-intentioned  man 
whose  intellect  does  not  reason  straight  on  the  simple  ques- 
tions of  life.  We  are  just  as  respgnsible  for  seeing  the 
right  as  for  doing  it  when  we  see  it;  and  thus  we  are  mor- 
ally guilty  for  every  element  of  fanaticism  we  might  have 
avoided.  Therefore  it  is  part  of  our  problem  in  moral 
education  to  cultivate  the  reason  and  form  sound  intellect- 
ual judgments  on  the  questions  of  living.  Moreover, 
large,  calm  thinking  exercises  a  peculiarly  elevating  effect 
upon  one's  moral  attitude.  Herbart,  better  than  any  one 
else,  has  shown  the  importance  of  'the  circle  of  thought' 
for  morality;  and  everyone  who  has  dwelt  for  a  while  with  H*  '  ^ 
the  great  thinkers  knows  how  powerfully  they  influence 
the  moral  life.^ 

There  is  thus  a  certain  solidarity  in  the  human  being; 
we  cannot  touch  one  phase  of  life  without  influencing  the 
whole.     Moral  health  depends  upon  the  sane  union  of  all 

^  "To  deny  the  moral  influence  of  intellectual  culture  is  as  great  an 
error  as  to  a^rm  that  it  alone  is  a  sufficient  safeguard  of  morality. 
Its  tendency  unquestionably  is  to  make  men  gentle,  amiable,  fair- 
minded,  truthful,  benevolent,  modest,  sober." — J.  L.  Spalding, 
Means  and  Ends  of  Education,  p.  193. 

"Great  moral  energy  is  the  result  of  broad  views,  and  of  whole 
unbroken  masses  of  thought." — Herbart,  Science  of  Education, 
translated  by  Felkin,  p.  222. 


54  MORAL   EDUCATION 

elements  of  life,  cultivated  in  just  proportion.  This  is  well 
expressed  in  a  suggestive  old  book  of  essays  by  Mary  G. 
Chandler.  She  says:  "  We  cannot  think  wisely  unless  we 
imagine  truly  and  love  rightly  as  well  as  warmly.  We 
cannot  love  rightly  unless  we  think  justly  and  imagine 
purely;  nor  can  we  imagine  purely  unless  we  love  that 
which  is  pure.  We  cannot  do  all  this  unless  we  live  out 
what  we  think,  imagine,  and  love.  *  *  *  What  we  do  must 
follow  closely  in  the  footsteps  of  what  we  know,  if  we  would 
arrive  at  breadth  and  depth  of  knowledge."  * 

This  unity  of  the  moral  life  is  often  ignored  in  the  cur- 
rent discussion  of  education.  Character  is  divided  into 
instinct,  habit,  will,  judgment;  and  each  of  these  elements 
is  separately  considered.  This  is  almost  as  grave  a  mis- 
take as  was  formerly  the  practice  of  dividing  the  mind  into 
distinct  'faculties.'  Modern  psychology  has  shown  us 
how  completely  the  mind  is  a  unity,  and  that  what  we 
called  faculties  are  merely  aspects  of  its  activity.  So  we 
must  learn  to  recognize  the  unity  of  the  moral  life.  We 
are  educating  not  faculties,  but  children.     The  training  of 


^  Mary  G.  Chandler,  The  Elements  of  Character,  pp.  46-47.  Com- 
pare also  E.  Thomson,   Educational  Essays,  pp.  239-240: 

"The  different  organs  of  the  spiritual  system — intellectual,  sensi- 
tive, and  moral — are  also  united  by  sympathy  and  mutual  depend- 
ence ;  if  you  get  one  of  them  into  the  habit  of  vigorous  and  healthy 
action,  the  others  will  assume,  to  some  extent,  a  corresponding  ac- 
tion. Quicken  the  heart,  for  instance,  and  intellect  and  conscience 
will  wake  up;  touch  conscience,  and  intellect  and  heart  will  leap; 
arouse  intellect,  and  its  associated  sensibilities  will  be  more  or  less 
stirred.  With  what  godlike  energy  does  even  a  sluggish  mind  "move 
when  brought  under  the  power  of  some  strong  passion!  *  *  * 
The  divisions,  strife,  enthusiasm,  fanaticism,  bigotry,  etc.,  in  Chris- 
tendom are  chiefly  ovving  to  a  want  of  intellectual  training  rather 
than  a  want  of  religious  principle.  From  this  correspondence  and 
dependence  of  action  it  follows  that  you  cannot  educate  one  part  of 
our  nature  without  influencing  others." 


THE   MORAL   ELEMENT   IN   EDUCATION  55 

different  aspects  of  the  moral  life  must  be  subordinated  to 
the  development  of  the  unified  moral  personality. 

Therefore,  the  problem  of  moral  education  is  the  prob- 
lem of  the  whole  of  education  in  relation  to  its  moral 
centre  and  aim.  Moral  culture  jtnnot  be  the  funqtiftiipf  r 
any  single  influence  or  institutio^*  The  home,  the  school, . 
the  church,  must  all  contribute;  every  instrument  of  educa-  \ 
tion  must  be  used  with  primary  reference  to  the  building 
of  good  character.  Formerly  there  was  much  discussion 
as  to  whether  moral  culture  was  properly  a  function  of  the 
public  school.  The  question  becomes  meaningless  when 
we  recognize  that  the  influence  of  every  phase  of  the  school 
life  and  work  can  never  be  indifferent,  but  must  count  for 
good  or  evil,  and  therefore  that  it  is  our  business  to  make  it 
as  good  as  possible.  Moral  culture  is  then,  not  a  phase  or 
a  part  of  education,  but  the  directing  and  organizing  of 
the  whole  process  of  culture  so  that  it  may  end  in  forming 
happy  and  useful  manhood  and  womanhood. 


\\ 


VII 

THE  TYPE  OF  CHARACTER  MORAL 
EDUCATION  SHOULD  FOSTER 

In  our  study  hitherto  I  have  assumed  a  general  concep- 
tion of  moral  health,  of  good  manhood  and  womanhood; 
it  is  now  necessary  to  define  what  we  mean  by  good  char- 
acter, and  so  to  formulate  the  aim  we  should  set  before  us 
in  moral  education. 

The  first  requisite  in  regard  to  the  conception  of  charac- 
ter is  that  it  should  be  essentially  positive.  The  mere 
avoidance  of  evil  is  one  condition  of  a  good  life,  but  it  is 
only  a  condition,  and  when  it  is  fulfilled,  the  question 
remains  open  as  to  the  worth  of  the  life  in  either  happiness 
or  human  service.  We  want,  not  that  a  man  should 
refrain  from  harming  his  neighbors,  but  that  he  should 
love  their  welfare,  enter  sympathetically  into  their  lives 
and  seek  to  help  them  grow  toward  their  highest  aims; 
not  that  he  should  avoid  falsehood,  but  that  he  should  love 
and  strive  for  the  truth.  So  we  need  to  jPoster  the  develop- 
ment of  positive  insight,  cosmopolitan  sympathy,  generous 
instincts  of  service,  an  heroic  attitude  toward  diflBculties. 

Thus  it  is  a  widespread  error  to  interpret  the  moral  life 
merely  negatively,  as  is  evidenced  in  the  current  use  of  such 
words  as  ^good,*  'moral,'  'ethical.'  When  we  have 
nothing  really  creditable  to  say  of  a  man  and  wish  to  be 
generous,  we  are  apt  to  say:    "Well,  at  least  he's  a  good 


THE   AIM    OF   MORAL   EDUCATION  57 

man,"  and  it  is  indeed  "to  damn  with  faint  praise;"  for 
we  mean  that  while  he  has  done  nothing  significant  for 
himself  or  others  we  have  seen  nothing  in  his  life  conspicu- 
ously wrong.  To  call  such  a  man  good  is  to  misuse  a 
noble  word;  he  is  merely  not  bad,  which  is  something 
quite  different. 

Indeed,  one  of  the  meanest  types  of  character  is  that 
of  the  cowardly  virtuous — the  people  who  never  do  wrong 
because  they  are  afraid  to,  but  who  are  not  in  love  with 
the  right  and  never  affirm  it  positively.  These  make  the 
gossips  and  scandal-mongers,  people  who  take  their  vice 
at  second  hand — the  v/orst  way  to  take  it.  There  is 
some  hope  that  he  who  does  wrong  may  see  the  ugliness 
of  his  deed  and  react  against  it;  but  the  one  who  is 
afraid  to  commit  the  evil  deed,  yet  secretly  loves  it  and 
satisfies  his  evil  desire  by  gloating  over  the  bad  actions  of 
others^  is  cultivating  an  inner  morbidness  destructive  to 
every  element  of  nobility  in  character.  Dante  places 
these  negatively  good  people  with  the  fallen  angels  who 
did  not  take  sides  in  the  battle  of  the  heavens,  who  were 
not  for  God,  nor  for  Satan,  but  wanted  to  await  the  issue 
of  the  conflict  and  join  the  winning  side: 

'*The  heavens  expelled  them,  not  to  be  less  fair; 
Nor  them  the  nethermore  abyss  receives. 
For  glory  none  the  damned  would  have  from  them."  ^ 

Dante  has  authority  for  his  view.  One  may  recall  what  is 
said  in  the  Bible  to  the  angel  of  the  church  of  the  Lao- 
diceans : 

"I  know  thy  works,  that  thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot: 
I  would  thou  wert  cold  or  hot. 

^  The  Divine  Comedy,  Longfellow's  translation,  canto  III. 


58  MORAL   EDUCATION 

"So  then  because  thou  art  hikewarm,  and  neither  cold 
nor  hot,  I  will  spew  thee  out  of  my  mouth."  ^ 

In  our  civilization  it  is  these  negatively  respectable 
people  who  are  the  great  burden  upon  us,  which  must  be 
lifted  in  every  movement  toward  moral  and  political 
reform.  The  blindly  reactionary  people  are  not  the 
gravest  menace  to  our  institutions.  The  anarchist  and 
nihilist,  harmful  as  they  may  be,  can  nevertheless  help  us 
by  showing  us  the  seriousness  of  the  problems  we  must 
solve.  Nor  are  we  in  America  in  any  im.mediate  danger 
through  the  ambition  of  an  Alcibiades  or  a  Napoleon.  It 
is  the  selfishness  of  indifference  that  is  the  real  menace  to 
our  national  life,  displayed  often  by  the  very  people  who 
imagine  they  are  the  salt  of  the  earth.  The  respectable 
people  who  are  absorbed  in  serving  the  interests  of  their 
families,  but  forget  all  about  the  larger  public  interest; 
who  are  so  devoted  to  their  private  affairs  that  they  have 
no  time  to  look  up  the  record  of  the  men  for  whom  they 
vote,  consider  the  principles  at  stake,  or  even  go  to  the 
polls;  who  will  not  face  the  local  bully  in  a  convention  or 
stand  up  for  a  cause  that  is  unpopular — these  are  the  people 
most  to  be  feared.  They  will  never  be  found  "with  truth 
upon  the  scaffold,"  but  far  back  in  the  noisy  procession 
that  follows  her  banner,  once  it  is  victorious. 

Thus  for  our  aims  as  a  people  and  for  every  end  of 
human  life,  the  type  of  character  we  need  to  develop  is  one 
that  is  large  in  its  view  of  life,  positive  in  obeying  what  it 
accepts  as  right,  effective  in  the  service  of  humanity.  Yet 
while  this  positive  force  of  personality  is  the  prime  requi- 
site, it  must  be  brought  under  the  regulation  of  reason  and 
into  harmony  with  the  laws  of  life.     The  forces  of  human 

^  Revelation,  chapter  III,  verses  15-16. 


THE  AIM    OF  MORAL   EDUCATION  59 

nature  are  exuberant,  and  may  easily  flow  into  extreme 
and  distorted  expression.  There  is  always  one  way  of 
right  action,  any  number  of  wrong.  ^  We  may  leave  the 
path  at  any  point,  and  so  limitation  is  constantly  necessary. 
The  problem  of  living  is  one  of  proportion ;  we  need  to  love 
the  best  thing  most,  the  next  in  its  order,  and  so  on  through 
all  the  objects  of  human  endeavor.  If  we  seek  any  object, 
no  matter  how  good  in  itself,  out  of  relation  to  the  whole  of  -^  >i. 
life,  the  result  is  some  measure  of  moral  disaster.  Thus 
reason  never  contributes  the  energy  of  the  moral  life;  its 
function  is  that  of  limiting  and  regulating  among  desires. 
The  need  of  this  rigid  obedience  to  *the  goddess  of 
Hmits'  is  doubtless  the  chief  cause  of  the  persistence  of  the 
purely  negative  view  of  morality.  This  cause  has  been 
supported,  it  is  true,  by  an  historical  tendency.  During 
much  of  Christian  history  the  negative  virtues  were  unduly 
emphasized.  The  highest  ideal  of  the  middle  ages  was  re- 
tirement from  the  world  into  a  *life  of  the  spirit'  apart 
from  ordinary  human  activity  and  relationship.  There  is 
enough  sanction  for  this  negative  ideal  in  the  teaching  of 
Christianity  to  insure  its  persistence  even  into  a  more 
positive  epoch  like  our  own.  It  is  important,  however, 
that  we  should  not  allow  either  the  historical  bias  or  the 
necessity  of  moral  limitation  to  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  life  . 
is  significant  only  in  proportion  to  the  vitality  of  its  con- 
tent.    The  limitation  has  a  meaning  only  in  relation  to 

*  "  Again,  there  are  many  different  ways  of  going  wrong;  for  e\'il 
is  in  its  nature  infinite,  to  use  the  Pythagorean  figure,  but  good  is 
finite.  But  there  is  only  one  possible  way  of  going  right.  Accord- 
ingly the  former  is  easy  and  the  latter  difficult ;  it  is  easy  to  miss  the 
mark  but  difficult  to  hit  it.  This  again  is  a  reason  why  excess  and 
deficiency  are  characteristics  of  vice  and  the  mean  state  a  character- 
istic of  virtue." — Aristotle,  The  Nicomachean  Ethics,  translated 
by  J.  E.  C.  WeUdon,  p.  47.  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1892. 


60  MORAL   EDUCATION 

what  is  limited;  the  restrictions  to  keep  us  in  the  path  are 
of  value  only  if  we  travel  the  path. 

Probably  the  ancient  Hebrews  show  the  most  elaborate 
attempt  in  human  history  to  give  life  a  moral  meaning  by 
hedging  it  around  with  ever  finer  limitations.  The  ten 
commandments  sum  up  the  spirit  of  the  written  law  in  a 
series  of  *thou  shalt  nots,'  warning  against  the  great 
phases  of  moral  failure.  Even  those  that  are  verbally 
affirmative  have  a  strong  negative  import.  The  written 
law  was  followed  by  a  vast  body  of  oral  commentation 
drawing  ever  finer  restrictions  about  life.  Ilie  effect  was 
less  harmful  for  the  Hebrews,  owing  to  the  intense  vigor  of 
the  race,  their  strong  hold  upon  the  simple  realities  of  life; 
yet  even  so,  their  long-continued  and  painstaking  effort 
ended  in  relative  failure.  At  the  time  Christianity  came 
how  "weary,  stale,  flat,  and  unprofitable"  had  become  the 
learning  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  with  the  ebb-tide 
in  the  forces  of  Hebrew  life.  Christ  showed  the  rich 
young  man  that  one  might  keep  all  the  commandments 
from  his  youth  up,  yet  be  morally  worthless;^  and  the  two 
commandments  of  love  to  God  and  one's  neighbor  were 
said  to  contain  all  the  law  and  the  prophets,  because  they 
inculcate  the  spirit  from  which  would  ceaselessly  flow  the 
good  actions  the  law  sought  vainly  to  guarantee  by  multi- 
plied negative  restrictions. 

There  are  thus  two  different  forms  of  moral  failure.  If 
vigorous  emotion  and  desire  are  given  free  sweep,  the  result 
is  a  wild  luxuriance  of  human  nature,  a  kind  of  tropical 
jungle  where  beautiful,  fragrant  flowers  bloom  beside 
noxious  poison  plants.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  life  has  little 
positive  content  of  feeling  and  desire,  but  is  surrounded 

^  Matthew,  chapter  XIX,  verses  lG-22. 


THE    AIM    OF   MORAL    EDUCATION  61 

with  careful  restrictions,  the  residt  is  sterihty,  a  Sahara 
desert  where  all  life  is  destroyed  over  the  barren  waste. 
As  an  example  in  thought  and  life  of  the  unrestrained  ex- 
pression of  natural  forces,  Rousseau  may  be  taken;  and 
one  sees  readily  how  foolish  is  the  theory  that  human 
nature  is  all  good  at  the  heart  and  only  the  removal  of 
limitations  is  necessary  to  bring  paradise.  John  Stuart 
Mill  has  given  us  an  illustration  of  the  opposite  failure  out 
of  his  own  life.  After  the  admirable  intellectual  education 
he  received,  he  found  himself  at  the  age  of  twenty  thor- 
oughly convinced  that  he  ought  to  live  for  the  good  of 
humanity,  and  caring  nothing  about  the  good  of  humanity.^ 
Reason  was  admirably  regulative,  but  there  was  nothing 
to  regulate.  The  machine  was  perfect,  the  engineer's  hand 
was  on  the  throttle,  but  there  was  no  steam  in  the  boiler. 
After  all,  a  tropical  jungle  is  better  than  a  Sahara  desert; 
for  in  the  former  is  much  life,  though  distorted  and  uncon- 
trolled, while  the  latter  is  mere  death. 

Thus  there  are  two  basal  principles,  one  primary  and 
one  secondary,  governing  our  work  in  moral  education. 
We  must  foster  the  growth  of  the  positive  and  effective 
moral  personality,  seeking  to  call  out  every  natural  power  U , 
in  harmonv  with  all  the  rest;  and  we  must  bring  this 
wealth  of  vigorous  life  into  harmony  with  the  laws  of  the 
universe  and  under  the  regulative  control  of  clear-sighted,^ 
conscious  reason. 

There  is  a  third  principle  which  we  must  follow.  We 
have  seen  that  human  life  is  a  growth-process,  and  there- 
fore the  moral  personality  we  seek  to  develop  will  be  not 
statical  but  changing.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to  see  to 
it  that  the  chansre  is  g^rowth  ever  toward  the  higher.     We 

^  See  John  Stuart  Mill,  Autobiography,  chapter  V. 


62  MORAL   EDUCATION 

have  emphasized  the  need  of  loving  and  willing  'the  best;' 
but  the  best  is  construed  differently  on  every  plane  of  life. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  undertake  a  discussion  of  the  theory 
of  relative  and  absolute  ethical  standards;  but  this  much 
I  can  say :  any  statement  of  the  moral  ideal  that  attempts 
to  be  absolute  will  be  merely  formal,  while  the  content 
gathered  up  within  the  form  will  change  v- ith  every  step  oi 
our  growth.  Suppose  one  accepts  the  statement  that  ''the 
chief  end  of  man  is  to  glorify  God  and  enjoy  Him  forever,'^ 
still  the  meaning  this  has  for  us  will  change  as  we  learn 
higher  and  larger  ways  of  serving  and  enjoying.  The 
moral  ideal  of  any  individual  is  relative  to  him,  and  there- 
fore absolutely  binding  upon  him.  We  owe  obedience  tc 
the  highest  we  can  see  upon  the  plane  of  life  we  have 
reached,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  see  as  high  as  we  can.  Diso- 
bedience to  our  own  loftiest  conception  is  punished  by  losj 
of  the  vision  and  degeneration  to  a  lower  plane. 

Thus  the  crowning  element  in  the  type  of  characte] 
moral  education  should  seek  to  foster  is  the  power  to  go  or 
growing  independently.  I  have  emphasized  the  need  oi 
helping  the  child  on  in  the  natural  process  of  his  develop- 
ment: after  all,  the  greatest  help  we  can  give  is  to  make 
him  independent  of  our  assistance.  We  can  aid  but  a  little 
while  and  over  a  limited  area  of  life;  the  individual  mus 
be  able  to  grow  steadily  from  within  if  his  life  is  to  b( 
increasingly  worth  while  to  himself  and  to  others.  There^ 
fore  the  wisest  teacher  is  the  one  who  makes  himself  unnec 
essary  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  This  is  not  usuall;) 
understood  in  our  present  American  education.  We  hea] 
much  of  the  need  of  strong  personality  in  the  parent  anc 
the  teacher,  and  the  current  discussion  implies  that  it  ij 
impossible  to  have  too  vigorous  an  assertion  of  it  over  the 


THE   AIM    OF   MORAL   EDUCATION  63 

child.  It  is  true,  we  need  strong  personality,  but  it  is 
equally  necessary  to  have  the  reserv^e  of  wisdom  in  its  ex- 
pression, otherwise  there  is  danger  that  the  child  may  be 
converted  into  a  mere  satellite  of  the  parent  or  teacher. 
This  is  so  far  from  being  generally  recognized  that  we  hear 
certain  institutions  and  teachers  even  boast  of  sending  out 
their  students  stamped  with  a  conventional  type  and 
manner. 

There  have  been  many  teachers  who  could  get  good 
work  out  of  their  pupils  and  an  obedient  response  from 
them,  while  the  teacher's  authority  was  present;  but  the 
really  great  teachers  are  those  who  have  been  able  to  touch 
the  student's  spirit  into  life,  yet  leave  the  flower  of  per- 
sonality unspoiled.  If  education  is  to  fit  for  the  world  in 
which  we  live  there  is  supreme  need  of  the  power  of  self- 
direction  and  the  ability  to  grow  without  depending  on 
outside  stimulus.  Let  me  repeat:  the  wisest  teacher  is 
the  one  who  makes  himself  unnecessary  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment;  and  he  becomes  most  useful  just  at  the 
point  where  he  ceases  to  be  necessary. 

The  principle  has  an  even  wider  application.  There  is 
much  said  today  about  the  desirability  of  so  organizing 
the  forces  of  education  as  to  be  able  to  stamp  a  definite 
national  and  moral  type  upon  all  children.  Indeed,  this 
is  often  assumed  to  be  unqualifiedly  desirable,  and  the 
question  raised  is  only  as  to  the  method  of  accomplishing 
it.  Certain  foreign  countries  have  gone  further  than  we 
have  in  this  connection.  France,  in  particular,  through 
her  modern  highly  centralized  system  of  education,  has 
gone  consciously  and  systematically  to  work  to  stamp  one 
national  type  upon  all  children.     It  may  well  be  ques- 


64  MORAL   EDUCATION 

tioned  whether  the  result  is  not  a  threatened  breakdown 
of  moral  initiative  and  originality.  The  test  of  French 
temper  that  came  with  the  famous  Dreyfus  case  indicated 
in  great  masses  of  the  people  a  lack  of  cool,  independent 
moral  judgment,  a  tendency  to  fall  easily  into  the  whims 
of  mob-mind,  a  ready  willingness  to  abandon  the  right 
for  some  supposed  *  honor  of  the  army'  or  the  nation, 
that  are  full  of  peril  for  the  future  of  French  freedom. 
There  were  redeeming  features,  I  know:  the  moral  inde- 
pendence of  a  few  men  stood  out  in  heroic  contrast;  but 
the  very  impressiveness  of  their  action  came  from  the  fact 
that  they  were  so  few. 

Wherever  militarism  has  been  dominant  there  are  illus- 
trations of  the  breakdown  of  moral  independence,  shown 
in  the  sheep-like  willingness  to  follow  a  leader,  even  when 
the  path  he  has  chosen  is  wrong.  Militarism  demands  of 
the  rank  and  file  but  one  virtue,  the  most  primitive  of  all, 
unquestioning  obedience;  and  surely  that  virtue  is  utterly 
inadequate  to  the  demands  either  of  free  citizenship  or  of 
independent,  moral  manhood  and  womanhood.  Whether 
one  turn  to  the  history  of  Sparta  or  to  phases  of  modern 
German  life,  one  may  find  with  equal  ease  evidences  of 
the  evil  of  militarism  adopted  as  the  profession  of  a  nation, 
and  of  the  endeavor  it  always  involves  to  stamp  a  single 
moral  type  upon  all  citizens.  For  certain  ends  of  the 
state  such  a  process  is  most  effective,  but  these  ends  are 
attained  at  the  expense  of  the  full,  free  development  of 
human  life  in  each  individual.  One  can  understand  why 
Prussia  hated  Froebel. 

What  of  the  present  tendencies  in  American  education  ? 
President  Butler  has  said  that  "  Spontaneity  is  the  keynote 


THE   AIM    OF   MORAL    EDUCATION  65 

of  education  in  the  United  States."  ^  Hitherto,  this  has 
been  largely  true.  Will  it  always  be  so  ?  The  tendency  is 
strong  today  in  our  public  education  toward  greater  cen- 
tralization and  more  and  more  machine-like  organization. 
Is  there  not  danger  that  w^e  may  sink  into  the  death  of  un- 
progressive  uniformity,  losing  the  moral  initiative  of  the  in- 
dividual teacher,  the  touch  of  his  life  upon  the  life  of  the 
child  ?  If  our  education  is  to  prepare  for  American  life,  if 
it  is  to  conserve  the  aim  of  moral  culture,  centralization 
must  be  balanced  by  democracy,  the  advance  of  system 
and  organization  must  be  no  faster  than  the  growth  of  free 
moral  initiative  in  the  individual  units.  It  is  unity,  not 
uniformity,  that  is  desirable.  The  former  means  sympa- 
thy in  spirit  through  mutual  appreciation  and  a  community 
of  ideals;  the  latter  would  be  hampering  identity  in  the 
form  and  body  of  life.  Thus  we  should  not  wish  to  stamp 
one  national  or  moral  type  on  all  our  children;  but  while 
initiating  them  into  the  full  inheritailce  of  ethical  thought 
and  action  from  the  past,  and  seeking  to  waken  in  them  an 
appreciation  of  the  great  ideals  for  which  our  country 
stands,  we  should  strive  to  preserve  and  deepen  their 
moral  originality  and  cultivate  an  independent  power  of 
growth. 

'  ^  "  Spontaneity  is  the  keynote  of  education  in  the  United  States. 
Its  varied  lorm,  its  uneven  progress,  its  lack  of  symmetry,  its  practical 
effectiveness,  are  all  due  to  the  fact  that  it  has  sprung,  unbidden  and 
unforced,  from  the  needs  and  aspirations  of  the  people.  Local  pref- 
erence and  individual  initiative  have  been  ruling  forces.  What  men 
have  wished  for  that  they  have  done.  They  have  not  waited  for 
state  assistance  or  for  state  control.  As  a  result,  there  is,  in  the 
European  sense,  no  American  system  of  education." — Nicholas 
Murray  Butler,  Introduction  to  Education  in  the  United  States:  A 
Series  of  Monographs  Prepared  for  the  United  States  Exhibit  at  the 
Paris  Exposition,  igoo,  p.  VIL 


66  MORAL    EDUCATION 

To  sum  up:  the  aim  of  moral  education  should  be  to 
develop  in  each  individual  a  strong  and  effective  moral 
personality,  reverently  obedient  to  the  laws  of  life  and  con- 
trolled by  clear-sighted  reason,  seeing,  loving  and  willing 
the  best  on  the  plane  of  life  that  has  been  reached,  strong 
in  moral  initiative  and  able  to  grow  independently  ever 
toward  loftier  vision  and  nobler  action. 


VIII 
TYPES  OF  ACTIVITY 

We  come  now  to  the  heart  of  our  subject,  the  problem 
of  the  means  we  are  to  utiHze  for  moral  culture.  Recon- 
struction of  the  current  view  is  as  necessary  here  as  we 
have  found  it  to  be  in  connection  with  the  aim  of  moral 
education.  Frequently  the  problem  is  discussed  as  if  it 
meant  merely  teaching  ethics  to  children.  It  is  evident 
that  ethical  instruction  is  a  necessary  part  of  our  work.  To 
live  well  we  must  be  able  to  distinguish  intellectually 
between  right  and  wrong;  yet  one  may  have  that  power 
and  still  fail  utterly  in  moral  living.  Between  seeing  the 
right  and  doing  it,  lie  two  other  activities,  love  and  will.  \ 
Character  is  organic;  the  virtues  must  be  built  into  the 
very  structure  of  our  habits  and  instincts.  Moreover, 
even  the  ethical  judgment  depends  less  upon  any  form  of 
intellectual  instruction  than  upon  practice  in  life  itself. 
Thus,  while  ethical  instruction  is  a  necessary  part  of  moral 
education,  it  is  only  a  part,  and  far  from  the  most  important 
one. 

If  we  consider  our  own  lives  we  shall  recognize  the  forces 
that  are  most  powerful  in  developing  character.  It  is  our 
own  action  and  the  reaction  of  surrounding  conditions  and 
forces  upon  us,  that  determine  the  moral  nature  of  our 
lives.  The  work  we  have  done  and  the  pleasures  we  have 
enjoyed,  the  sorrows  and  struggles  through  which  we  have 


68  MORAL   EDUCATION 

passed,  the  streets  and  houses  about  us,  the  government 
under  which  we  have  hved,  the  natural  world,  the  social 
atmosphere,  the  individuals  who  have  been  associated 
with  us — it  is  these  forces  that  have  molded  us  for  good  or 
evil.  Hence  our  main  work  in  moral  education  consists 
in  directing  and  controlling  the  activities  of  children,  and 
in  utilizing  and  regulating  the  environment  that  acts  upon 
them. 

Moreover,  the  effect  of  environment  upon  any  individual 
is  determined  by  his  attitude  and  action  in  reference  to  it; 
and  therefore  the  activities  of  children  will  have  the  most 
direct  influence  upon  their  moral  development.  Surely 
since  Froebel,  no  one  is  excusable  for  failing  to  see  that 
every  educational  influence  is  to  be  interpreted  only  in 
terms  of  the  child's  *  self-activity.'  What  children  do  is 
more  important  than  what  is  done  to  them. 

There  are  three  different  types  of  action  which  can  be 
clearly  distinguished  from  each  other,  each  of  which  has 
its  own  value  for  moral  education.     They  are : 

1.  Work  compelled  by  external  forces,  as  the  wills  of 
other  persons  or  the  necessities  of  life.  In  such  action  the 
will  of  the  individual  responds  to  the  pressure  of  some 
objective  force. 

2.  Work  self-compelled.  This  is  activity  which  is 
not  spontaneous,  flowing  from  joy  in  the  action  itself, 
but  f>erformed,  even  though  somewhat  distasteful,  be- 
cause it  leads  tc^  some  end  the  individual  has  freely 
chosen. 

3.  Play,  or  spontaneous,  uncompelled  action.  Here 
the  action  in  itself  is  attractive.  The  forces  of  life,  physical 
or  mental,  flow  out  naturally  into  joyous  expression,  with 
no    compulsion,    subjective    or    objective.     These    three 


TYPES    OF   ACTIVITY  69 

types  of  activity  form  an  ascending  scale  toward  freedom; 
we  are  to  consider  the  value  of  each  for  moral  culture. 

Just  here  we  come  upon  an  old  struggle.  The  conflict 
between  love  and  duty  goes  far  back  in  the  history  of 
thought  and  has  come  up  anew  in  education.  Is  an  action 
tnorally  better  because  it  is  difficult  ?  Is  it  nobler  to  do 
right  because  you  love  to,  or  because  you  ought  to  ?  Kant 
is  the  extreme  expression  of  the  type  of  philosophy  which 
holds  action  to  be  good  only  as  it  is  consciously  impelled 
by  an  imperative  of  duty.  Kant  went  so  far  as  to  argue 
that  when  we  do  right  because  we  love  to,  the  action  has  no 
moral  value.  ^  The  poets,  who  stand  so  much  closer  to  the 
common  thought  and  experience  of  mankind  than  the 
philosophers,  have  been  the  best  interpreters  of  the  oppo- 
site view,  which  holds  that  love  is  better  than  duty  and  that 
the  moral  value  of  an  action  is  increased  as  it  becomes 
spontaneous. 

Undoubtedly  the  merit  of  an  action  that  is  difficult  is 
greater  than  that  of  one  flowing  naturally  from  a  love  of 
the  best.  For  instance,  a  sailor  who  is  more  or  less  a 
slave  to  drink,  and  who  finds  himself  alone  in  a  great  city 
with  three  months'  pay  in  his  pocket,  deserves  credit  if  he 
succeeds  in  passing  the  saloons  without  going  in  and  falling 
victim  to  a  debauch.  On  the  other  hand,  a  man  like 
Emerson,  sane  in  appetite  and  self-control,  with  no  ten  pta- 
tion  to  gross  self-indulgence,  earns  no  merit  by  passii  g  a 
row  of  saloons  without  entering  any  one  of  them  to  get 
intoxicated.  Yet  as  the  second  type  of  action  is  more 
beautiful  is  it  not  morally  higher  than  the  first  ?     Habitual 


1  Kant,  Metaphysic  of  Morals,  Section  I,  in  Kant's  Critique  of 
Practical  Reason,  etc.,  translated  bv  T.  K.  Abbott.  Longmans, 
Green,  &  Co.,  New  York,  1889. 


70  MORAL   EDUC^IION 

resistance  to  a  temptation  ends  by  making  us  insensible 
to  it.  The  action  that  began  as  morally  difficult  becomes 
attractive  and  easy  as  it  becomes  habitual.  Kant  would 
reduce  us  to  the  paradox  that  an  action  which  began  as 
morally  good  ceases  to  be  good  merely  by  repeating  it. 

Thus  we  must  distinguish  carefully  between  the  merit 
of  the  man,  under  all  the  circumstances,  and  the  moral 
worth  of  the  action  in  itself.  For  the  man  on  the  higher 
plane  to  deserve  as  much  credit  as  the  other,  he  must 
strive  just  as  hard  for  the  excellencies  that  are  still  beyond 
him;  if  he  rests  on  what  has  been  attained  he  quickly 
deteriorates.  On  the  other  hand,  no  good  action  reaches 
its  full  moral  worth  until  it  becomes  the  natural  expression 
of  a  loving  heart. 

The  same  paradox  that  Kant  held  in  ethics  long  domi- 
nated education.  It  was  assumed  that  only  what  was  un- 
pleasant for  the  pupil  had  an  educative  value.  As  in  relig- 
ion a  melancholy  behavior  was  supposed  to  be  pleasing 
to  God,  so  the  school  was  made  as  forbidding  as  possible. 
Rousseau  led  the  strong  reaction  against  this  fallacy.  His 
protest  was  partly  put  in  practice  by  Pestalozzi  and  com- 
pletely carried  out  by  Froebel.  It  is  impossible  to  state 
too  strongly  our  debt  to  the  kindergarten  for  its  insistence 
upon  the  educational  value  of  free,  spontaneous  action. 
In  all  his  work  Froebel  stands  for  the  emancipating  truth 
that  action  is  worth  while,  in  education  and  life,  in  propor- 
tion as  it  is  joyous.  Yet,  even  with  tliis  lofty  teaching 
behind  us,  the  old  discussion  goes  on.  'Interest'  and 
'duty'  are  pitted  against  each  other;  and  it  becomes 
necessary  to  see  clearly  the  value  of  each  type  of  action  in 
moral  development. 

The  most  important  point  with  reference  to  the  three 


TYPES   OF   ACTIVITY  71 

types  of  action  is  that  in  the  ascending  scale  each  lower 
phase  tends  to  pass  into  the  next  higher.  One  who  begins 
to  work  in  response  to  the  spur  of  necessity  or  the  authority 
of  others,  tends  more  and  more  to  work  from  inner  choice. 
If  the  end  be  worth  while,  one  comes  to  recognize  it  and 
so  to  affirm  the  means,  thus  substituting  an  inner  for  an 
outer  compulsion  and  achieving  a  considerable  measure 
of  freedom.  Even  more  rapidly  does  work  tend  to  pass 
into  play.  Almost  any  action  expressing  power  becomes 
attractive  as  we  learn  to  do  it  easily  and  well.  Therein 
lies  the  well-known  possibility  for  good  or  evil  in  habit. 
The  action  that  at  first  was  difficult  becomes  increasingly 
easy  and  spontaneous.  The  thing  we  did  because  we  \ 
must,  we  come  to  do  from  delight  in  it. 

This  applies  not  only  to  all  ordinary  work,  but  to  every 
moral  action  begun  in  obedience  to  duty.  You  have  a 
neighbor  whom  you  dislike  and  whom  you  pass  every  day 
upon  the  street.  From  a  sense  of  duty  you  force  yourself 
to  speak  to  him  as  kindly  as  possible.  After  some  days 
this  ceases  to  be  an  effort;  you  begin  to  appreciate  the 
other's  humanity,  to  realize  how  largely  the  faults  you 
resented  in  him  are  the  result  of  accidents  of  which  he  has 
been  the  victim.  Perhaps  his  sourness  is  altered  a  little; 
and  in  the  end,  the  action  that  began  as  a  hard  expression 
of  duty  becomes  a  positive  joy. 

How  much  more  beautiful  is  the  action  at  the  end  than 
in  the  beginning,  though  at  first  it  was  far  more  meritori- 
ous. People  who  force  themselves  to  do  generous  deeds  i 
for  us  from  a  sense  of  duty,  deserve  our  reverence  but  do  I 
not  give  us  joy.  How  impossible  it  w^ould  be  to  live  habit- 
ually with  any  one  who  never  did  a  kind  action  except 
from  a  sense  of  duty  !    The  deeds  that  make  us  happy  are 


72  MORAL   EDUCAIION 

those  that  overflow  from  a  loving  heart.  Thus  the  spon- 
taneous action  is  not  only  more  beautiful  than  the  com- 
pelled one,  but  has  a  higher  function  of  service.^ 

This  process  of  transforming  the  lower  type  of  action 
into  the  higher  is  constantly  going  on  in  the  moral  life; 
its  end  would  be  the  complete  transfiguration  of  duty  into 
love,  and  work  into  play.  Wordsworth  has  this  in  mind 
when  he  says: 

"Serene  will  be  our  days  and  bright 
And  happy  will  our  nature  be 
When  love  is  an  unerring  light,  ,., 

And  joy  its  own  security."^ 

Dante,  in  more  detail,  describes  the  end  of  the  process  in 
the  last  charge  Virgil  gives  him  at  the  top  of  the  mountain 
of  struggle : 

"The  temporal  fire  and  the  eternal, 

Son,  thou  hast  seen,  and  to  a  place  art  come 

Where  of  myself  no  farther  I  discern. 
By  intellect  and  art  I  here  have  brought  thee; 

Take  thine  own  pleasure  for  thy  guide  henceforth; 

Beyond  the  steep  w^ays  and  the  narrow  art  thou. 
Behold  the  sun,  that  shines  upon  thy  forehead; 

Behold  the  grass,  the  flowerets,  and  the  shrubs 

Which  of  itself  alone  this  land  produces. 
Until  rejoicing  come  the  beauteous  eyes 

1  * 'By  being  happy,  we  sov/  anonymous  benefits  upon  the  world 
which  remain  unknown  even  to  ourselves,  or  when  they  are  disclosed, 
surprise  nobody  so  much  as  the  benefactor." — Robert  Louis  Stev- 
enson, An  Apology  for  Idleness,  in  Virginibus  Puerisque,  p.  122. 

^  Ode  to  Duty. 


TYPES   OF  ACTIVITY  73 

Which  weeping  caused  me  to  come  unto  thee, 

Thou  canst  sit  down,  and  thou  canst  walk  among  them. 
Expect  no  more  or  word  or  sign  from  me; 

Free  and  upright  and  sound  is  thy  free-will, 

And  error  were  it  not  to  do  its  bidding; 
Thee  o'er  thyself  I  therefore  crown  and  mitre! "^ 

There  is  no  hope,  or  danger,  however,  that  the  end  of 
the  process  will  come  to  human  nature  as  it  is  in  this  world. 
Our  effort  may  become  more  harmonious  and  less  painful, 
but  effort  will  always  be  necessary  to  the  highest  life. 
Here,  every  height  is  but  a  stepping-stone  to  a  higher. 
The  more  we  convert  hard  actions  into  glad,  spontaneous 
ones,  the  morfe  free  are  we  to  press  on  in  obedience  to  a 
still  loftier  call  of  duty;  and  perhaps  this  process  might 
extend  to  infinity.  Thus  in  the  world  we  know  and  the 
life  we  live  both  types  of  action  are  always  necessary.  If 
education  is  to  prepare  adequately  for  human  living  it 
must  utilize  both  in  the  training  of  the  child.  The  third 
and  lowest  type  of  action,,  work  in  obedience  to  external 
compulsion,  may  entirely  disappear  in  the  best  human 
life,  and  therefore  is  to  be  utilized  in  education  only  as  a 
means  to  the  other  two. 


1  The  Divine    Comedy,    translated    by    Longfellow,    Purgatorio, 
canto  XXVII. 


IX 

MORAL  EDUCATION  THROUGH  PLAY 

We  have  seen  that  logically  work  precedes  play  and 
leads  up  to  it.  For  an  adult,  to  play  well  one  must  have 
worked  well.  With  the  child,  on  the  other  hand,  the  free, 
spontaneous  action  precedes  the  other  type.  This  con- 
trast is  but  one  expression  of  a  general  law.  Everywhere 
in  life  and  education  we  are  beginning  to  see  that  the 
logical  order  we  discover  by  analyzing  a  certain  subject- 
matter  is  often,  perhaps  usually,  opposite  to  the  chrono- 
logical order  in  the  development  of  life.  Logically  we 
would  construct  a  living  organism  of  the  higher  group  by 
laying  down  as  a  basis  the  bony  skeleton,  covering  this  with 
flesh  and  muscle,  and  finally  adding  the  skin  and  special 
organs  and  senses.  In  nature,  on  the  contrary,  the  organ- 
ism is  born  alive,  the  elements  that  logically  follow  one 
another  develop  simultaneously,  and  the  skeleton,  the 
logical  foundation  of  all  the  restj  is  one  of  the  last  to  receive 
its  final  form. 

So  in  teaching  any  subject,  we  would  begin  logically 
with  the  abstract  elements  and  gradually  build  up  the 
concrete  whole  from  these.  In  draw^ing^  the  first  element 
logically  is  the  straight  line,  then  the  curved  line,  then  the 
combination  of  these  into  geometrical  forms,  thus  preparing 
for  the  drawing  of  objects  from  nature.  Really,  however, 
the  child  begins  to  use  drawing  as  a  language  for  expres- 


MORAL   EDUCATION   THROUGH   PLAY  73 

slon,  he  is  interested  in  copying  and  creating  concrete 
scenes  long  before  he  can  understand  the  abstract  elements 
of  form  that  furnish  the  grammar  of  art.^  So  with  every 
art,  he  should  acquire  the  means  of  expression  before  he  can 
understand  its  grammar  or  theoretic  principles.  He  can 
sing  before  he  can  understand  musical  notation.  He 
speaks  long  before  he  is  ready  for  the  grammar  of  lan- 
guage. We  are  only  beginning  to  understand  the  reach 
and  importance  of  this  principle  in  its  application  to 
education.  INIany  of  our  text-books,  even  in  subjects 
most  transformed  by  the  modern  spirit,  continue  to  be 
constructed  in  harmony  v^ith  the  logic  of  the  adult  mind 
instead  of  the  order  of  development  in  the  child. ^ 

In  its  application  to  moral  education  this  law  means 
that  the  habit  of  good  conduct  should  precede  ethical  i 
reasoning,  that  the  child's  activities  in  harmony  with  the 
best  should  be  developed  before  he  can  understand  ethical 
principles.  Thus  the  first  element  of  moral  education  in 
the  earlier  period  of  childhood  will  be  to  waken  and  guide 
these  activities.  Moreover,  as  we  have  seen,  the  earlier 
form  of  activity  is  the  free,  spontaneous  type.  This  is 
due  to  the  almost  perfect  adjustment  of  pleasure  to  life- 
sustaining  action  in  the  child's  instincts.  The  baby  works 
for  his  dinner  until  he  is  in  a  profuse  perspiration,  but  in- 
stinct renders  the  effort  itself  pleasurable.     As  the  child 

1  Compare  two  studies  in  the  Pedagogical  Seminary  on  children's 
drawings:  by  Herman  T.  Lukens,  vol.  IV,  pp.  79-110;  and  by 
Frederick  Burk,  vol.  IX,  pp.  296-323. 

^  Compare  the  study  on  Children's  Interests  by  Earl  Barnes, 
Studies  in  Education,  vol.  I,  pp.  203-212.  The  results  of  this  study 
indicate  that  children  are  interested  in  use  and  movement  before 
color  and  form.  Mr.  Barnes  concludes  that  therefore  our  natural 
history  and  other  object  lessons  with  young  children  need  to  be 
reconstructed  on  the  basis  of  the  growth  of  the  child's  interest. 


76  MORAL   EDUCATION 

grows  out  of  his  babyhood  into  the  period  of  manifold 
imitation  of  Kfe,  his  activity  still  falls  largely  under  the  head 
of  play.  Self-compelled  work  becomes  possible  only  with 
the  development  of  a  conscious  reflection  that  can  recog- 
nize ends;  and  In  the  earlier  period,  while  work  directed 
iby  others  has  a  small  but  growing  value,  play  Is  the  form 
of  action  we  must  chiefly  utilize  for  education. 

For  child  or  man  play  gives  more  complete  self- 
expression  than  work.  It  Is  therefore  so  wonderful  a  test 
of  character.  When  we  do  what  we  like  to  do  because  we 
like  It,  we  show  what  we  mean  and  care  for.  Goethe 
understood  this  In  portraying  the  common  people  In  Faust. 
When  he  desired  to  show  the  meaning  of  their  lives  he 
chose,  not  the  six  days  of  their  compelled  action  in  obe- 
dience to  the  wills  of  others,  but  the  one  day  of  glad  free- 
dom to  do  as  they  pleased.  It  Is  then  that  what  they  really 
care  for  appears.^ 

As  play  is  the  most  expressive  form  of  action,  so  It  gives 
a  growth,  both  In  power  to  do  and  power  to  appreciate, 
that  does  not  come  in  equal  measure  from  work.  When 
we  compel  ourselves  to  an  action  we  grow  In  power  to 
■  compel  ourselves,  but  In  the  action  itself  we  are  hampered 
by  the  friction  involved.  When  the  action  Itself  is  attrac- 
tive and  our  whole  Interest  is  absorbed  in  it,  the  growth  in 
power  is  greatest;  for  we  go  forward  most  rapidly  in  mas- 
tering the  difficulties  of  the  action  when  our  attention  is  not 
forced  by  the  will,  but  held  by  the  charm  of  the  action 
itself.^     Similarly  with   appreciation:  our  work   initiates 

^  Faust,  part  I,  scene  II. 

^  "  What  children  acquire  in  the  spontaneous,  intense,  self-directed 
use  of  their  faculties  is  always  more  valuable  than  the  results  of  a 
less  eager  though  more  prolonged  attention  to  enforced  tasks." — 
President  Eliot,  More  Money  for  the  Public  Schools,  p.  72. 


MORAL   EDUCATION   THROUGH   PLAY  77 

US  into  the  struggles  of  other  people,  our  play  makes  it  pos- 
sible for  us  to  appreciate  their  love  and  desire.  When  a 
little  girl  plays  'dolls'  or  'keeping  house'  she  is  living 
herself  into  the  deepest  springs  of  human  life.  So  play 
quickens  observation  and  imparts  instruction  in  the  most 
effective  way.  The  boy  who  watches  the  carpenter  build 
a  house  on  the  corner,  and  then  on  Saturday  constructs 
a  hut  in  the  backyard,  has  learned  how  a  house  is  made 
better  than  we  can  teach  him  by  any  process  of  intellec- 
tual instruction. 

Many  who  have  reflected  carefully  upon  their  own  earlv 
development  have  acknowledged  how  much  more  impor- 
tant to  their  culture  was  some  form  of  play  than  the  or- 
dinary work  of  education.  This  was  confessed  by  several 
of  the  writers  in  the  interesting  sjmiposium  in  the  Forum 
some  years  ago  on  "  How  I  was  Educated."  ^  Goethe  gives 
a  still  more  striking  illustration  in  his  Autobiography. 
The  puppet-play  he  enjoyed  with  such  varied  activity  and 
large  play  of  imagination  meant  more  to  his  real  culture 
and  to  the  work  of  his  mature  life  than  some  parts  of  the 
formal  education  he  received." 

If  play  is  then  so  powerful  an  instrument  of  education 
it  should  not  be  left  to  chance  and  whim,  but  should  be 
utilized  consciously  in  the  home  and  the  school,  and  adapted 
to  the  period  of  the  child's  development.  Froebel  was  the 
great  pioneer  here ;  and  though  the  over  mystical  interpre- 
tations he  gave  to  the  toys  he  would  place  in  the  hands  of 
children  were  unwarranted,  and  have  certainly  led  to  folly 

1  See  the  articles  by  E.  E.  Hale,  T.  W.  Higginson,  F,  A.  P. 
Barnard,  and  others,  in  the  Forum,  vols.  I  and  II. 

^  Compare  Goethe's  Autobiography,  translated  by  Oxenford,  pp. 
35-36, 


78  MORAL   EDUCATION 

in  those  of  his  followers  who  have  no  sense  of  humor,  still 
it  is  to  Froebel  we  owe  the  first  clear  formulation  of  the 
law  of   a   succession  of   *  gifts*  and  games  for  the  child 
adapted  to  the  phases  of  his  growth,  and  utilized  consciously 
in  his  education.     Indeed  his  was  not  only  the  first  but  the 
only  great  attempt  except  as  developed  by  his  followers. 
Coming  as  he  did  before  the  modern  study  of  child-develop- 
ment, Froebel  based  his  arrangement  of  'gifts'  more  upon 
the  nature   and   relations  of   the  object  than  upon  the 
phase  of  development  of  the  child.     Thus  in  some  meas- 
ure he  shared  the  mistake,  referred  to  at  the  beginning 
of  this  chapter,  of  following  the  logical  instead  of  the  nat- 
ural order.     The  value  of  the  ball  is  not  that  it  symbolizes 
the  principle  of  sphericity  in  nature,  but  that  it  is  simple  in 
form,  easily  fits  itself  to  the  hand,  suggests  vigorous  action 
and  lends  itself  to  social  games.   Similarly  the  little  wooden 
blocks  given  to  children  are  of  value  as  units  for  creative 
construction,  not  as  expressing  abstract  geometrical  prin- 
ciples.    Thus  in  general  the  '  gifts '  of  Froebel  are  helpful, 
not  because  they  cultivate  analysis  of  form  or  an  under- 
standing of  abstract  principles  and  type  ideas,  but  in  so  far 
as  they  lead  to  observation  of  the  concrete  and  to  interest 
in    constructive   action.     The    child's    play   is   of  value 
not  chiefly  as  a  means  of  instruction,  but  as  calling  forth 
healthy  expression  of  intellect,  imagination  and  emotion, 
developing  the  creative  power  and  the  ability  to  appreciate, 
and  cultivating  at  once  independent   action   and   social 
harmony.     With  this  larger  moral  aim  before  us  the  follow- 
ing principles  should  guide  us  in  selecting  and  regulating 
the  toys  and  games  of  children: 

1.  There  should  be  simplicity  in  the  character,  and  rigid 
limitation  in  the  number  of  toys  given  a  child.     Many 


MORAL   EDUCATION   THROUGH   PLAY  79 

complicated  toys  suppress  instead  of  wakening  a  child's 
activity.^  One  simple  cloth  doll  a  child  may  dress  and 
undress  is  worth  a  show-window  of  wax  puppets  finished 
in  imitation  of  overdressed  adults.  One  box  of  plain 
blocks  is  better  than  a  hundred  complicated  toys,  whose 
chief  use  is  to  stimulate  the  child's  faculty  for  investiga- 
tion, as  he  takes  them  to  pieces,  at  the  expense  of  cultivat-  ^ 
ing  a  dangerous  destructiveness. 

2.  The  toys  and  games  should  furnish  a  means  of 
activity  and  stimulate  to  it,  the  better  if  the  activity  is 
creative.  This  principle  is  vastly  more  important  than 
questions  of  color  and  form  in  the  toys.  Indeed  those 
questions  are  rather  incidental,  to  be  settled  by  good  taste 
without  much  reference  to  education.  The  toy  I  remem- 
ber with  greatest  pleasure  from  my  own  early  childhood 
was  a  quantity  of  blocks  sawed  from  a  piece  of  smoothed 
scantling.  They  were  home-made,  in  size  about  2j 
inches  each  way,  uncolored,  with  no  distracting  pictures 
upon  them,  and  could  not  be  broken.  They  were  simple 
units  from  which  one  could  construct  all  manner  of  inter- 
esting objects,  especially  trains  and  castles,  and  outlasted, 
both  in  interest  and  educational  value,  the  objects  of  ad- 
miration of  many  a  Christmas  morning.  Next  to  that 
toy  I  recall  with  most  interest  a  box  of  empty  spools  pos- 
sessed by  a  fortunate  friend  whose  mother  was  a  seam- 
stress. While  less  ready  units  than  the  blocks,  these  spools 
could  be  used  in  many  a  game  and  construction. 

The  value  of  the  collections  of  stamps,  flowers,  minerals, 
which  most  children  have  a  passion  for  making  at  a  certain 
stage   of  their  growth,    is,  similarly,  that   such   interests 

*  See  an  excellent  chapter  on  Toys,  in  Practical  Educaticm,  by 
Maria  and  R.  L.  Edgeworth,  vol.  I,  pp.  9-39. 


80  MORAL   EDUCATION 

stimulate  an  educative  type  of  action.  Still  more  helpful 
are  living  pets  in  furnishing  opportunity  and  stimulus  for 
much  activity  on  the  part  of  the  child.  No  inanimate 
toy  can  be  equally  effective.  Moreover,  in  caring  for  his 
animal  friends  and  charges,  building  huts  for  them,  feeding 
and  protecting  them  from  storms,  the  child's  action  is  not 
only  creative,  but  expressive  of  the  most  generous  and 
affectionate  emotions.  Thus  few  instruments  can  be  more 
valuable  for  moral  culture  than  this. 

3.  In  all  the  child's  play  there  should  be  room  for  the 
imagination  and  a  stimulus  to  its  activity.  Any  one  who 
has  watched  a  child  make  a  train  of  cars  out  of  a  row  of 
chairs  placed  together  or  a  few  square  blocks  on  the  floor, 
and  has  contrasted  the  lastingness  and  intensity  of  the 
child's  joy  with  the  brief  interest  he  has  in  a  complicated, 
mechanical  imitation  engine  and  cars,  will  realize  how 
largely  both  the  pleasure  and  the  educational  value  of  play 
are  due  to  the  imagination.  From  this  point  of  view 
simplicity  in  the  character  and  limitation  in  the  number  of 
toys  become  doubly  desirable.  In  every  aspect  of  human 
life  today  we  can  see  the  deadening  effect  of  over-equip- 
ment. We  are  always  in  danger  of  slipping  into  slavery 
to  the  things  that  should  serve  us.  We  need  good  tools, 
but  we  must  keep  the  upper-hand  and  use  our  tools,  other- 
wise they  become  a  burden.  It  is  difficult  to  study  hard 
in  a  college  over  luxurious  in  its  appointments.  I  have 
seen  school-rooms  so  decorated  with  a  multitude  of  things 
that  pupils  and  teacher  alike  seemed  unable  to  live  up  to 
their  clothes.  Life,  like  art,  demands  a  certain  hard 
restraint  if  it  is  to  be  independent  and  forceful.  Thus 
especially  in  childhood  we  must  beware  of  suppressing 
mind  and  imagination  by  a  multitude  of  things.     The 


MORAL    EDUCATION    THROUGH   PLAY  81 

blas^  child  sitting  in  the  midst  of  a  nursery  crowded  with 
uncared-for  toys  is  father  of  the  man  who  has  *  gained  the 
whole  world '  or  a  good  part  of  it,  and  lost  the  kingdom  of 
his  own  soul;  and  the  child  is  more  to  be  pitied  than  the 
man  because  he  is  not  to  blame  for  his  condition. 

Thus  a  child  gains  far  more  in  joy  and  culture  from  his 
play  when  a  large  element  must  be  filled  out  by  his  imagi- 
nation. This  explains  why  the  little  girl  will  cherish  a 
rag-doll  that  does  not  look  at  all  like  a  real  baby  with  so 
much  more  affection  than  an  imitation  of  a  human  baby, 
uncanny  in  its  lifelikeness.  On  the  other  hand,  wonder 
is  closely  akin  to  active  imagination,  and  the  stimulus  that 
comes  with  surprise  in  the  presence  of  some  unexplained 
mechanism  may  waken  activity.  Thus  occasionally  it 
may  be  helpful  to  surprise  the  child  with  some  little  inven- 
tion of  the  age,  that  is  not  good  as  the  daily  bread  of  his 
play  life. 

4.  It  is  well  that  a  child  should  learn  to  play  alone, 
without  the  stimulus  of  association  with  other  persons. 
This  makes  for  resourcefulness  in  human  life  and  involves 
an  independent  activity  of  the  imagination  that  is  helpful. 
Except  for  those  children  who  tend  to  withdraw  overmuch 
into  a  dream  world  of  their  own,  parents  should  seek  to 
cultivate  in  the  child  this  abihty  to  depend  upon  himself 
in  some  part  of  his  play. 

5.  On  the  other  hand,  a  wholly  new  element  of  moral 
education  enters,  when  play  involves  association  and  com- 
bination with  others.  Here,  again,  it  is  to  the  kindergarten 
we  turn  for  the  most  noteworthy  application  of  the  princi- 
ple. The  games  of  the  kindergarter\  involving  social 
union  and  action  cheerfully  in  harmony  with  others,  are 
among  its  most  valuable  contributions  to  education.     The 


82  MORAL   EDUCATION 

same  principle  is  the  basis  in  those  vigorous  athletic  games, 
played  by  organized  teams,  and  especially  available  for 
\  boys.  If  only  the  number  of  players  and  spectators  could 
ij  be  reversed !  Such  games  demand  at  once  strong  personal 
'  initiative  on  the  part  of  each  member  with  rigorous  subor- 
dination of  his  action  to  the  purpose  of  the  whole;  thus 
cuhivating  just  that  combination  of  independence  and 
obedience  necessary  in  moral  living.  These  games,  how- 
ever, which  have  often  been  pushed  quite  beyond  sane 
relation  to  the  aims  of  education  in  school  and  college 
'athletics,'  if  the  most  spectacular,  are  by  no  means  the 
best  illustration  of  the  principle  we  are  considering.  Many 
quiet  games  played  with  toys,  even  in  the  nursery  age,  can 
be  so  guided  as  to  teach  the  child  harmonious  combination 
with  others;  and  all  outdoor  play  can  be  so  arranged.  We 
thus  gain,  not  only  the  added  education  in  socially  harmo- 
nious action,  but  the  great  stimulus  to  the  child's  activity 
that  results  from  companionship.  This  element  of 
social  combination  can  be  utilized  increasingly  as  the 
child  grows,  since  the  natural  process  of  moral  develop- 
ment is  toward  action  where  means  are  consciously  ad- 
justed to  ends  and  where  the  individual's  sjmipathy 
extends  over  a  widening  area  of  life. 

6.  It  is  impossible  to  emphasize  too  strongly  the  value  of 
some  measure  of  companionship  in  the  child's  play  on  the 
part  of  the  parent  and  others  guiding  the  child.  Not  only 
do  we  thus  learn  to  know  more  intimately  the  tastes  and 
tendencies  of  our  children  and  gain  opportunities  for  the 
exercise  of  the  most  helpful  personal  influence,  but  our 
companionship  is  itself  one  of  the  most  important  factors 
in  making  the  play  morally  educative  to  the  child.  His 
self-expression  is  helped  and  guided  and  his  activity  is 


MORAL   EDUCATION   THROUGH   PLAY  83 

brought  into  harmony  with  the  whole  of  Hfe.  Parents 
should  take  a  hint  from  the  fact  that  the  most  effective 
workers  in  boys'  and  girls'  clubs  have  always  been  those 
who  could  'play  the  game'  most  enthusiastically. 

7.  On  the  other  hand,  we  must  beware  of  over  regulating 
the  play  of  our  children,  or  its  spontaneity  will  be  lost  and 
it  will  degenerate  into  a  dull  routine.  The  child  must  keep 
his  initiative  and  the  adult  should  be  comrade,  not  master.^ 

By  consciously  selecting  and  guiding  the  child's  play  in 
harmony  with  the  principles  above  outlined,  we  can  utilize 
it  as  a  powerful  force  for  moral  education.  Perhaps  the 
most  important  moral  result,  however,  is  the  learning  of 
the  art  of  joy.  With  all  our  failure  in  the  art  of  work 
through  overhaste  and  misdirected  energies,  we  under- 
stand that  form  of  action  so  much  better  than  Vv'e  do  the 
art  of  joy.  One  of  the  most  significant  evidences  of 
failure  in  our  civilization  is  found  in  the  wav  we  strive  to 
enjoy  ourselves.  The  soldier  or  sailor,  home  from  some 
months'  endurance  of  hard  w^ork  and  privation,  who 
wanders  into  the  underground  dives  where  poisonous  drink 
is  sold  and  sad  caricatures  of  what  once  v>^ere  women  are 
ready  to  pander  to  every  degraded  sensibility,  is  seeking  to 
be  happy.     The  rich  man  who  strives  to  distract  himself 

1  "  From  those  who  2:row  up  under  the  oppression  pf  constant  ob- 
servation, no  versatihty,  no  inventive  power,  no  spirit  of  darins;,  no 
confident  demeanor  can  be  expected.  We  can  only  expect  human 
beings  of  simple,  unvaried  temperament,  to  vrhom  the  flat  monoto- 
nous round  of  prescribed  business  is  pleasant  and  right,  who  would 
shrink  from  all  that  is  elevated  and  peculiar,  and  give  themselves  up 
to  all  that  is  commonplace  and  comfortable.  Those  who  so  far  agree 
with  me  in  this  must  be  careful  not  to  think  for  a  moment  that  they 
can  Claim  to  form  great  characters,  because  they  leave  their  children 
to  run  wnld  without  supervision  and  without  culture.  Education  is 
a  vast  whole  of  ceaseless  labor,  which  exacts  true  proportion  horn 
beginning  to  end ;  merelv  to  avoid  a  few  errors  is  of  no  avail." — Hei'.- 
BART,  T'/ie  Science  of  Education,  translated  by  Felkin,  p.  98. 


84  MORAL   EDUCATION 

by  wandering  aimlessly  over  the  earth,  by  incessantly  gam- 
bling, or  by  buying  thousands  of  acres  other  people  need 
and  turning  them  into  a  wilderness  through  which  he  may 
follow  dogs,  is  trying  to  be  happy.  Even  the  cultivated 
human  being,  who  should  know  better  if  his  education  has 
been  sound,  makes  such  sad  work  of  it  when  he  attempts 
the  art  of  joy.  The  very  name  we  give  our  play  shows  our 
failure;  for  we  speak  of  distraction'  and  *  diversion'  as 
if  we  wanted  to  be  diverted,  pulled  off,  from  the  serious 
business  of  life,  failing  to  see  that  true  play  is  recreation, 
the  recreating  of  our  powers,  bodily  and  mental,  through 
their  spontaneous  and  joyous  expression. 

Perhaps  we  are  so  slow  in  learning  the  art  of  joy  because 
joy  itself  has  so  long  and  so  widely  been  regarded  as  evil. 
We  are  only  beginning  to  understand  what  Spinoza  argued 
so  clearly:^  that  joy  as  joy  is  life,  and  pain  as  pain  is  death. 
It  is  true  life  may  spring  from  death,  and  the  '  ministry  of 
suffering'  may  teach  what  could  be  learned  in  no  other 
way.  Yet  true  joy  means  greater  vitality  and  power,  and 
it  should  be  the  inheritance  of  every  human  being. 

Thus  we  should  give  opportunities  of  joyous  play  to  our 

*  Spinoza  returns  to  this  argument  again  and  again  in  distinct 
reaction  against  the  views  of  the  reUgions  that  prevailed  in  his  en- 
vironment. Compare  his  Ethic  (translated  by  W.  Hale  White, 
second  edition,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1894)  part  III, 
propositions  XI  and  LIX;  also  part  IV,  proposition  XLV,  p.  217: 

'  Nothing  but  a  gloomy  and  sad  superstition  forbids  enjoyment. 
For  why  is  it  more  seemly  to  extinguish  hunger  and  thirst  than 
to  drive  away  melancholy?  My  reasons  and  my  conclusions  are 
these: — No  God  and  no  human  being,  except  an  envious  one,  is 
delighted  by  my  impotence  or  my  trouble,  or  esteems  as  any 
virtue  in  us  tears,  sighs,  fears,  and  other  tilings  of  this  kind,  which 
are  signs  of  mental  impotence;  on  the  contrary,  the  greater  the 
joy  with  which  we  are  affected,  the  greater  the  perfection  to 
which  we  pass  thereby,  that  is  to  say,  the  more  do  we  necessarily 
partake  of  the  divine  nature." 


MORAL  EDUCATION  THROUGH   PLAY  bo 

I 

children  if  we  are  to  educate  them  for  the  art  of  joy  in 
human  Hfe;  and  "our  children"  should  mean  all  children. 
As  it  is  the  duty  of  every  parent  and  teacher  to  utilize  the 
play  of  his  children  so  that  it  may  contribute  to  their  whole 
culture,  so  it  is  the  duty  of  society  as  a  whole  (that  is,  of 
every  man  and  woman)  to  give  every  child  opportunity  for 
such  culture  and  guide  his  use  of  it.  Only  as  this  is  done 
for  all  children  can  we  hope  to  make  play  contribute  the 
great  aid  it  may  furnish  for  moral  education.^ 


^  "Man  eats  and  works;  so  does  the  ox.  But  man  is  created  also 
to  enjoy,  and  his  capacities  for  enjoyment  put  him  into  communica- 
tion with  fields  of  being  of  which  the  mere  animal  cannot  faintly 
dream.  Some  of  those  whose  thought  and  care  were  given  to  the 
poor  felt  that  their  work  was  hardly  begun  until  they  could  waken 
into  activity  those  distinctly  human  faculties  of  social  intercourse, 
of  intellectual  pleasure  and  artistic  delight,  which  for  themselves 
made  the  world  so  fair  and  life  so  well  worth  living.  It  would  seem 
as  though  this  were  a  proper  function  of  the  State-supported  school 
system ;  but  it  will  probably  take  several  generations  yet  to  con- 
vince taxpayers  that  it  is  not  a  waste  of  money  to  teach  the  rising 
generation  how  to  be  simply  and  rationally  happy." — James  O.  S. 
Huntington,  in  Philanthropy  and  Social  Progress,  by  Jane  Addams, 
et  al,  pp,  108-109, 


X 

MORAL  EDUCATION  THROUGH  WORK 

We  have  seen  that  work  as  well  as  play  is  present  in  all 
human  living,  that  the  motive  of  love  must  be  completed 
by  duty;  therefore  if  moral  education  is  to  prepare  for 
life  it  must  train  both  the  desire  for  earnest  work  and  the 
habit  of  its  performance.  Moreover,  not  only  as  a  prep- 
aration for  adult  life,  but  in  its  direct  moral  results,  work 
is  a  precious  instrument  of  education.  It  can  be  made 
to  contribute  in  four  ways : 

1.  The  power  to  work  is  the  mastery  of  the  means  in- 
dispensable in  the  pursuit  of  any  end  of  human  life. 
Spontaneous  action  is  an  end  in  itself  as  work  is  not,  but 
we  do  not  go  far  on  the  path  toward  any  aim  that  is  worth 
while  without  the  power  of  hard,  sustained  effort.  Genius 
has  been  defined  as  the  capacity  for  hard  work;  genius  is 
much  more  than  that,  but  no  talent  or  gift  will  carry  a  man 
far  without  the  ability  to  work  earnestly  and  continuously 
even  when  the  work  is  distasteful. 

2.  While  play  is  the  form  of  action  most  rapidly  devel- 
oping power,  it  is  through  work  that  we  round  out  char- 
acter and  bring  elements  in  which  we  are  deficient  into 
harmony  with  the  whole,  thus  making  our  lives  more 
effective  instruments  than  they  could  be  otherwise. 

3.  Work  is  the  means  by  which  we  establish  good  habits 
we  would  not  otherwise  form.     In  so  far  as  our  desires  are 


MORAL  EDUCATION  THROUGH  WORK         &1 

right  and  our  play-instincts  sound,  we  can  leave  the  habits 
formed  by  spontaneous  action  to  take  care  of  themselves; 
but  it  is  only  by  hard  and  repeated  effort  that  we  can  build 
brain  paths  to  actions  and  ends  we  know  to  be  right  but 
to  which  we  are  not  naturally  drawn  in  desire.^  Yet  it  is 
just  these  habits  formed  by  hard,  conscious  effort  that  are 
the  one  trustworthy  safeguard  against  the  forms  of  failure 
to  which  we  are  individually  peculiarly  liable. 

4.  It  is  work  tha.t  gives  us  self-mastery  in  every  phase  of 
the  moral  life.  Play  is  expressive,  harmonious,  beautiful, 
but  hard  effort  is  the  one  path  to  a  self-control,  positive  not 
negative,  that  makes  it  possible  for  us  to  trust  ourselves  and 
utilize  all  our  forces  for  the  ends  we  consider  worth  while. 

Obviously  these  four  values  come  primarily  through 
work  that  is  from  inner  compulsion,  depending  upon  the 
will  of  the  individual  and  not  upon  external  forces.  With 
the  work  that  is  compelled  from  without  the  chief  direct 
gain  is  in  the  formation  of  habits  and  the  growth  that  may 
be  utilized  later  by  self-direction.  Still,  when  the  work  is 
for  good  aims  and  rightly  adjusted  to  the  personality,  we 
have  seen  that  the  lower  form  tends  to  pass  into  the  higher, 
the  outer  compulsion  to  be  replaced  by  an  affirmation  of 
the  individual's  own  will.  Thus  rightly  utilized,  the  work 
from  external  compulsion,  such  as  we  may  exact  of  chil- 
dren, contributes  only  less  directly  than  the  self-compelled 
action  to  the  same  four  moral  ends  we  have  studied. 
Thus  work  must  be  utilized  as  a  precious  and  constant 

1  "As  the  Strength  of  the  Body  lies  chiefly  in  being  able  to  endure 
Hardships,  so  also  does  that  of  the  Mind.  And  the  great  Principle 
and  Foundation  of  all  Virtue  and  Worth  is  plac'd  in  this:  That  a 
Man  is  able  to  deny  himself  his  own  Desires,  cross  his  own  Inclina- 
tions, and  purely  follow  what  Reason  directs  as  best,  tho'  the  Appe- 
tite lean  the  other  Way." — Locke,  Some  Thoughts  concerning  Educa- 
tion, edited  by  Quick,  p.  21. 


88  MORAL   EDUCATION 

element  of  moral  education.  The  power  to  work  is 
gained  only  by  working.  Everything  possible  should  be 
done  to  lead  the  individual  to  put  the  pressure  on  from  his 
own  will  increasingly;  but  in  one  or  the  other  form  he  must 
work,  otherwise  character  deteriorates  or  atrophies.^ 

It  is  a  pity  v/e  obey  this  principle  so  little  in  our  present 
education.  In  certain  communities  where  the  modern 
reaction  has  been  carried  furthest  the  schools  seem  to  lack 
moral  fibre.  The  children  have  never  done  anything  that 
was  difficult  for  them;  and  so,  while  bright  and  quickly 
responsive,  they  lack  stability,  continuous  self-direction 
and  the  power  to  overcome  obstacles.  One  finds  this 
error  in  an  occasional  abuse  of  the  kindergarten  where 
there  is  too  much  'managing'  of  children,  and  frequently 
in  homes  where  moral  'coddling'  prevails.^  Elaborate 
devices  are  developed  to  trick  children  into  doing  good.^ 

^"Self-chosen  occupations,  everything  else  being  equal,  are  cer- 
tainly the  best,  but  children  seldom  know  how  to  occupy  themselves 
sufficiently  and  with  perseverance.  Definite  tasks — to  do  this  or 
that,  till  it  is  finished— secure  order  better  than  any  desultory  play, 
which  is  liable  to  end  in  ennui." — Herbart,  Letters  and  Lectures  on 
Education,  translated  by  Felkin,  p.  121. 

^  "Is  not  the  exclusively  sympathetic  and  facetious  way  in  which 
most  children  are  brought  up  today — so  different  from  the  educa- 
tion of  a  hundred  years  ago,  especially  in  evangelical  circles — in 
danger,  in  spite  of  its  many  advantages,  of  developing  a  certain 
trashiness  of  fibre?  Are  there  not  hereabouts  some  points  of  applica- 
tion for  a  renovated  and  revised  ascetic  discipline?" — William 
James,  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience  ,  p.  365.  Compare  also 
Herbart,  TJie  Science  of  Education,  translated  by  Felkin,  p.  248: 

"Coddling  in  moral  matters,  just  as  in  all  others,  is  the  worst 
means  of  protecting  individuals  against  the  harmfulness  of  climate. 
Warding  off  outward  cold  does  not  mean  increasing  warmth;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  moral  warmth  arises  for  the  most  part  out  of  true 
work  and  conflict,  in  which  already  existent  power  is  gradual!^ 
firmly  established  through  the  stings  of  external  ill." 

^  As  an  example  of  what  not  to  do  in  this  connection  compare 
AuRETTA  R,  Aldrich,  Children:  Their  Models  and  Critics,  pp.  67-78. 


MORAL  EDUCATION  THROUGH  WORK         89 

Instead  of  demanding  what  is  right  of  the  child  because  it 
is  right,  his  attention  is  skillfully  diverted,  schemes  are 
arranged  to  interest  him  in  something  else,  and  finally  he 
is  brought  around  to  doing  the  action  without  knowing  it. 
This  may  smooth  the  path  for  the  teacher  or  parent,  but  it 
is  of  small  moral  value  to  the  child.  There  are  times,  I 
grant,  when  the  attention  of  a  stubborn  child  needs  to  be 
distracted  and  a  conflict  should  be  avoided  at  all  hazards; 
but  the  child  who  is  habitually  kept  in  line  by  adventitious 
managing  will  show  a  lack  of  stable  self-control. 

John  Stuart  Mill  pointt^i  out  that  we  are  in  danger  of 
raising  up  a  race  of  men  "incapable  of  doing  anything 
which  is  disagreeable  to  them."  ^  A  very  little  experience 
or  even  reflection  will  show  the  necessity  of  doing  many 
things  which  are  disagreeable  to  us,  if  we  are  to  live  happily 
and  helpfully.  Thus  there  is  a  moral  value  in  holding 
children  to  the  steady  performance,  cheerful  if  possible, 
of  tasks  they  do  not  like  to  do,  where  it  is  right  that  they 
should  do  them.  The  fact  that  the  work  is  distasteful  to 
the  child  is  no  evidence  at  all  that  it  should  not  be  exacted, 
though  rather  sentimental  modern  educators  have  so  mis- 
interpreted  the  fact.  It  is  true,  we  want  to  associate  pleas- 
ure with  good  action  in  every  helpful  way,  but  this  should 
be  accomplished,  not  by  allowing  the  child  free  following 
of  whim  (which  would  lead  to  bad  as  well  as  good  action) 

1  "It  is,  no  doubt,  a  very  laudable  effort,  in  modem  teaching,  to 
render  as  much  as  possible  of  what  the  young  are  required  to  learn, 
easy  and  interesting  to  them.  But  when  this  principle  is  pushed 
to  the  length  of  not  requiring  them  to  learn  an\i,hing  but  what  has 
been  made  easy  and  interesting,  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  education 
is  sacrificed.  I  rejoice  in  the  dechne  of  the  old  brutal  and  tyrannical 
system  of  teaching,  which,  however,  did  succeed  in  enforcing  habits 
of  apphcation;  but  the  new,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  training  up  a  race 
of  men  who  vdW  be  incapable  of  doing  anything  which  is  disagree- 
able to  them." — Autobiography,  pp.  52-53. 


90  MORAL   EDUCATION 

nor  by  seeking  to  manage  his  whims,  but  by  wakening  love 
of  the  good  end  and  associating  our  sympathy  and  ap- 
proval with  the  effort  that  leads  to  it.^  Thus  in  assign- 
ing work  to  children  our  questions  should  be:  Is  the  work 
adapted  to  the  child^s  period  of  development  and  propor- 
tioned to  his  whole  activity?  Is  it  an  element  that  will 
contribute  helpfully  to  his  moral  growth?  If  we  can 
answer  these  questions  affirmatively  the  child  should  be 
held  to  the  task,  whether  or  not  his  whim  is  attracted  by  it. 
Thus  children  should  contribute  helpfully  to  the  life  of 
the  household.  They  may  or  may  not  like  washing 
dishes,  making  beds,  bringing  up  coal  and  wood,  or  mend- 
ing stockings;  but  this  work  needs  to  be  done  and  should 
not  have  the  stigma  attached  to  it  of  being  relegated,  wher- 
ever possible,  entirely  to  subordinates  whom  the  child  may 
come  mistakenly  to  regard  as  inferiors.  The  best  way  to 
make  him  reverence  simple  hand-work  is  to  have  him  do  it, 
and  do  it  helpfully  in  relation  to  the  needs  of  those  nearest 
him.  His  little  part  of  the  work  of  the  home  it  is  morally 
advisable  the  child  should  contribute,  because  it  is  right  to 
do  so;  while  the  more  he  comes  to  work  from  his  own  will, 
and  finally  to  love  the  work  and  convert  it  into  play,  the  bet- 
ter. Moral  education,  like  all  other,  must  come  most  of  all 
through  practice.  The  child  will  grow  into  the  best  moral 
attitude  toward  those  about  him  only  by  practising  helpful- 
ness toward  them;  and  there  is  no  way  by  which  he  can 
grow  into  the  desired  attitude  unless  opportunities  for 
helpfulness  be  given  him  and  he  be  required  to  fulfill  them. 

*  Note  how  a  mother  learns  to  love  tasks  a  girl  finds  it  most  dis- 
tasteful to  do  for  her  younger  sister  or  brother.  The  task  itself  is 
just  as  disagreeable  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  but  the  difference 
in  attitude  toward  the  person  for  whom  it  is  done  gives  it  an  entirely 
different  meaning. 


MORAL  EDUCATION  THROUGH  WORK         91 

Professor  Adler  has  sought  to  apply  this  principle 
systematically  to  the  children  in  the  Ethical  Culture 
Schools.  He  says  in  a  paper  on  The  Moral  Instruc- 
tion of  the  Young   (Ethical  Record,  July  1889) : 

"Another  point  *  *  *  is  that  our  classes  are  organized 
for  purposes  of  practical  charity.  The  pupils  collect 
among  themselves  each  month  a  certain  sum,  and  this  is 
used  partly  to  assist  in  defraying  the  expenses  of  an  evening 
schopl  for  poor  children, — partly  to  purchase  comforts  and 
delicacies  for  the  sick  poor.  In  the  teaching  of  morals,  if 
anywhere,  practice  should  not  be  divorced  from  theory." 

This  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  seeking  to  make 
children  practise  helpfulness  toward  the  larger  human 
world.  To  make  the  scheme  most  helpful,  however,  the 
children  should  earn  the  money  and  thus  contribute  from 
what  is  their  own.  Even  then  there  would  be  some 
danger  of  cultivating  that  false  spirit  of  patronage,  on  the 
part  of  those  who  have  toward  those  who  have  not,  which 
spoils  so  much  philanthropy.  Of  all  forms  of  practising 
helpfulness,  the  giving  of  money  is  often  the  easiest  and 
usually  the  least  desirable.  Thus  the  great  need  is  that 
children  should  contribute  what  is  truly  their  own — their 
time  and  effort  in  simple  work — to  the  welfare  of  those 
about  them. 

The  moral  value  of  such  work  is  multiplied  if  the  parent 
is  associated  with  the  child  in  the  performance  of  it.  This 
of  course  means  a  considerable  expenditure  of  time  for  the 
parent,  but  the  moral  gain  to  the  child  far  more  than  com- 
pensates. Thus  no  mother  is  morally  excusable  for  doing 
all  the  housework  herself,  on  the  ground  that  it  is  easier 
than  to  teach  her  children  to  cooperate.  It  is  not  only 
that  by  such  association  with  the  child  opportunities  for 


92  MORAL   EDUCATION 

helpful  direction  and  counsel  come  to  the  parent,  but  the 
right  attitude  toward  the  work  itself  is  then  developed,  and 
the  lower  form  of  action  is  more  quickly  transformed  into 
the  higher.  Moreover,  the  general  good  of  companionship 
with  children,  making  possible  our  deeper  understanding 
of  them  and  giving  opportunity  for  that  highest  education 
that  results  from  contagion  of  spirit,  is  realized  wonderfully 
when  the  companionship  is  in  helpful  forms  of  work. 

The  formation  of  the  habit  of  work  will  proceed  more 
rapidly  if  the  work  required  of  children  is  definitely  as- 
signed and  comes  at  regular  times.  The  children  should 
have  stated  tasks  which  they  are  expected  to  do  without 
constant  prompting.  However,  the  principle  of  regularity 
may  easily  be  carried  too  far.  The  power  we  want  to 
cultivate  is  not  the  ability  to  perform  a  single  monotonous 
task,  but  the  power  to  turn  from  one  kind  of  action  to 
another  without  wasteful  friction.  Thus  it  is  a  great 
moral  advantage  if  the  work  demanded  of  children  is 
varied  and  not  over  specialized.  The  very  special  task 
comes  to  be  performed  more  and  more  mechanically,  w^hile 
the  more  varied  action  gives  large  human  development. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  the  most  desirable 
form  of  work  for  children  comes  with  simple  farm  life. 
Here  is  the  ideal  combination  of  variety  and  regularity  in 
work  that  can  be  done  under  the  best  physical  conditions. 
City  parents,  on  the  contrary,  are  confronted  with  two 
opposite  evils.  The  well-to-do,  under  our  present  social 
standards,  have  much  difficultv  in  findinfy  suitable  tasks 

'  I/O 

for  their  children.  If  the  work  is  adventitiously  made  the 
child  resents  it,  and  much  of  the  moral  value  is  lost.  The 
situation  is  complicated  by  the  fact  that  parents  who  have 
had  to  struggle  in  early  life  are  apt  to  wish  to  protect  their 


MORAL  EDUCATION  THROUGH  WORK         93 

children  from  *  having  such  a  hard  time'  as  they  recall. 
Thus  they  deny  their  children  the  very  element  that  gave 
them  power,  self-control  and  efficiency. 

As  the  problem  is  difficult  for  prosperous  city-dwelling 
parents,  there  is  the  more  need  that  they  should  give 
earnest  thought  and  effort  to  its  solution.  It  may  be  VvcU 
to  discharge  a  servant  that  the  children  may  have  some 
really  helpful  work  to  do.  When  all  possible  is  done,  the 
problem  almost  defies  solution;  but  then,  well-to-do 
people  are  rarely  compelled  to  live  in  the  city.  They  may 
at  least  go  where  it  is  possible  to  keep  a  horse  the  boy  may 
take  care  of,  or  have  a  bit  of  ground  in  which  the  children 
may  make  and  care  for  a  garden.  Where  it  is  impossible 
to  give  the  children  varied  and  helpful  tasks  throughout 
the  year,  there  is  considerable  compensation  when  this  is 
done  at  least  for  the  vacation,  through  the  summer  farm  or 
camp. 

For  the  city  poor  there  is  the  opposite  difiiculty  with  far 
less  chance  of  escape  from  it.  The  need  is  not  to  find  work 
for  their  children,  but  to  protect  them  from  the  over- 
pressure that  stunts  and  kills.  And  alas!  it  is  just  the 
most  specialized  forms  of  work  for  which  children  can  be 
used:  ceaseless  care  of  a  baby,  until  the  child  is  worn  with 
a  premature,  enforced  motherhood ;  or  far  worse,  the  daily 
endurance  in  factorv,  or  what  is  called  home,  of  some 
fragmentary  mechanical  action  to  which  the  child's  supple 
body  and  mind  can  be  readily  habituated  at  the  price  of 
his  larger  potentiality  of  growth.  The  exploitation  of  its 
children  is  not  only  the  crowning  shame  of  a  nation,  it  is  its 
most  wasteful  crime.  No  other  slavery  is  so  costly  as 
economic  child-slavery;  for  in  it  we  pay  the  life-blood  of 
the  nation  for  the  transient  commercial  interest  of  some 


94  MORAL   EDUCATION 

individuals,  and  invite  the  premature  decrepitude  that 
makes  a  people  an  easy  victim  to  military  foes  without  and 
moral  foes  within. 

Good  legislation  and  wise  enforcement  of  it  are  extremely 
difficult  in  connection  with  this  problem.  Starved  parents 
and  wicked  employers  unite  to  defeat  the  law  and  exploit 
the  child;  and  those  who  try  hastily  to  solve  the  problem, 
while  ignoring  certain  factors,  pass  measures  that  serve 
only  to  exasperate.  Yet  here  again,  the  greater  the  need, 
the  more  pressing  the  duty;  and  what  I  want  to  emphasize 
is  the  fact  that  every  one  of  us  is  responsible  for  every  child 
that  is  stunted.  The  parent  fighting  a  losing  economic 
battle,  the  employer  struggling  to  meet  a  merciless  compe- 
tition under  existing  industrial  conditions:  these  are  but 
parties  to  a  crime  that  stains  the  whole  of  society.  We 
must  ask  what,  on  the  whole,  will  give  the  highest  moral 
development  to  the  children,  and  we  must  follow  unswerv- 
ingly the  dictates  of  that  principle  in  legislation  and  its 
enforcement.  Let  me  return  to  our  initial  point  of  view: 
everything  is  bad  which  does  not  make  the  child's  life  as 
joyous  as  possible  now  and  as  natural  a  step  as  it  may  be 
to  the  life  that  follows. 

The  school  can  do  much  to  aid  both  classes  of  children; 
for  the  aim  of  the  school  should  alwavs  be  human  and  never 
merely  economic;  therefore  in  school  the  child's  activity 
can  be  regulated  entirely  with  reference  to  his  best  develop- 
ment. The  private  boarding-school,  fulfilling  a  larger 
measure  of  the  parental  function,  can  go  beyond  the  public 
school  in  guiding  the  child's  activity;  but  in  both, the  moral 
education  that  comes  through  work  may  be  furthered  in 
four  ways: 

1.  The  school  can  utilize  forms  of  physical  action  that 


MORAL   EDUCATION  THROUGH  WORK  05 

are  educative  in  the  highest  degree.  Manual  training  has 
already  proved  itself  a  priceless  instrument  of  moral  cul- 
ture. Its  great  value  is  not  that  it  may  prepare  for  certain 
tasks  in  adult  life,  but  that  through  creative  seli-expression 
the  child  comes  into  contact  with  the  universe  of  law  and 
his  simple  deed  becomes  a  doorway  to  the  whole.  This 
moral  value  is  far  more  important  than  the  manual  expert- 
ness  such  work  fosters,  though  that  too  has  a  moral 
implication.  Nothing  else  clarifies  the  spirit  so  effectively 
as  to  do  something  skillfully;  and  the  simpler  the  deed  the 
greater  is  the  clarifying  effect.  One  great  value  of  such 
work  as  Sloyd^  is  its  demand  for  accuracy  of  execution 
while  producing  objects  which  appeal  to  the  child  as  worth 
while.  Such  work  tends  to  correct  the  frequent  slovenli- 
ness in  the  child's  performance  of  household  tasks.  It  is  a 
promising  sign,  too,  that  simple  industrial  work  is  being 
introduced  into  the  schools;  not  that  the  economic  value 
of  the  results  should  be  considered,  but  that  the  moral 
value  of  the  work  is  enhanced  when  it  produces  what  the 
child  recognizes  to  be  useful.  If  instead  of  an  imitation 
bookcase  or  bureau  the  child  can  make  a  really  useful 
ruler  or  box,  and  instead  of  a  complicated  but  purposeless 
arrangement  of  straws  and  fibres  he  can  weave  a  little 
basket  which  will  be  of  service  in  the  household,  his  con- 
sciousness of  the  worth  of  what  he  makes  multiplies  the 
moral  value  of  his  constructive  activity. 

School  gardens  furnish  another  means  of  giving  children 
an  opportunity  for  simple,  varied,  creative  work.     Re- 


1  Compare  the  pamphlet  on  American  Sloyd,  by  Gustaf  Laesson, 
Boston,  1900  (?). 


96  MORAL   EDUCATION 

garded  as  a  substitute  for  farm  life  they  are  pitifully  in- 
adequate, still  they  can  furnish  an  element  of  education  in 
v/ork  possible  to  nothing  else  in  school  life. 

2.  The  work  in  direct  physical  lines  is  so  attractive  to 
children  that  it  passes  readily  into  play,  which  is  one  of  its 
greatest  advantages.  In  another  way  the  school  can 
utilize  for  moral  culture  those  subjects  of  study  in  which  it 
is  less  easy  to  make  action  spontaneous,  and  which  always 
demand  some  measure  of  compelled  effort,  as  mathematics 
and  the  languages.  These  subjects  are  tools  rather  than 
ends,  to  be  mastered  for  aims  that  are  ulterior  to  the  study 
itself.  It  is  well  to  make  them  as  interesting  a5  possible, 
but  when  this  has  been  done,  hard  effort  is  usually  neces- 
sary in  ordel-  to  master  them.  In  mathematics  particu- 
larly there  must  be  a  definite  effort  in  order  to  develop  the 
power  of  abstract  thinking  which  the  study  demands. 
Mathematics  is  the  grammar  of  science,  a  purely  abstract 
language  for  stating  and  examining  the  facts  and  laws  of 
science.  To  make  it  entirely  concrete  is  to  make  it  some- 
thing else  than  mathematics.  When  a  child  sees  that  two 
apples  put  with  two  other  apples  make  four  apples,  it  is  an 
interesting  observation;  but  it  becomes  mathematics  only 
when  he  reasons  abstractly  that  two  and  two  make  four. 
Yse  have  always  taught  arithmetic  too  early,  and  in  the 
modern  effort  to  correct  the  bad  results  of  this,  instead  of 
pushing  the  subject  further  on  in  the  course  to  the  period 
w^here  abstract  reasoning  rapidly  develops  in  the  child, 
we  have  tried  by  innumerable  devices  to  make  the  study 
easy  and  concrete,  thus  creating  an  anomalous  subject 
which  has  in  some  instances  lost  its  educational  value. 
Thus  where  we  decide  it  is  wise  to  teach  mathematics. 


MORAL  EDUCATION  THROUGH  WORK         97 

we  should  insist  upon  the  hard  effort  necessary  to  abstract 
thinking,  and  so  gain  not  only  good  results  in  the  par- 
ticular study,  but  an  increased  power  of  concentration 
and  self-control. 

3.  The  school  can  utilize,  for  the  moral  ends  of  work, 
those  subjects  the  student  does  not  like.  Doubtless  every- 
one would  agree  today  that  it  is  a  waste  of  life  to  compel 
a  pupil  to  study  mainly  what  is  distasteful  to  him ;  but  for 
almost  all  students  there  is  the  need  to  master  some  sub- 
ject, not  in  itself  attractive,  in  order  to  round  out  one's 
power.  One  should  then  work  to  master  the  subject  be- 
cause it  is  right  to  do  so,  because  the  additional  element  is 
necessary  to  one's  equipment  for  life.  With  modern  ex- 
periments in  election  of  studies  how  often  this  principle 
is  disobeyed.  One  sees  a  political  economist  hampered 
all  his  life  because  he  *did  not  like  languages,'  so  neglect- 
ed two  or  three  of  his  most  important  tools;  or  a  minister 
who  '  did  not  like  natural  science,'  hence  missed  the  most 
valuable  balance-wheel  in  his  thinking.  Thus  by  begin- 
ning early  and  guiding  with  wisdom,  the  school  can  help 
to  round  out  character  and  develop  the  power  of  work  by 
holding  the  student  steadily  to  the  faithful  mastery  of 
subjects  not  in  themselves  attractive  to  him,  but  neces- 
sary to  his  best  equipment  for  life. 

4.  There  is  the  same  moral  value,  perhaps  in  greater 
measure,  in  doing  the  hard  work  necessary  in  every  subject 
of  study.  As  in  every  avenue  of  life  there  is  some  dead 
work,  unattractive  in  itself,  that  must  be  done  for  the 
sake  of  the  end  in  view,  so  is  it  with  every  study  the 
pupil  undertakes.  To  hold  the  individual  to  the  loyal 
doing  of  this  dead  work  because  it  is  right  and  neces- 
sary, however  unattractive  it  may  be,  is  to  give  him  one 


98  MORAL    EDUCATION 

of  the  most  precious  elements  of  his  equipment  for  moral 
living.^ 

I  need  hardly  point  out  how  much  wisdom  is  demanded 
of  both  parent  and  teacher  in  order  to  give  just  the  right 
amount  and  kind  of  work  most  helpful  to  the  individual 
child  in  the  specific  period  of  development  he  has  reached. 
Here,  as  everywhere  in  morals,  there  is  just  one  combination 
that  is  best,  and  we  can  err  from  it  in  any  direction.  It  is 
so  easy  to  overburden  the  child,  to  press  him  to  a  point  of 
weariness  that  is  exhausting,  or  to  require  of  him  work 
unsuited  to  his  phase  of  growth.^  We  made  the  latter  mis- 
take in  the  kindergarten,  before  modern  physiology  and 
psychology  had  taught  their  lessons,  in  assigning  to 
little  children  forms  of  paper-cutting  and  sewing  demand- 
ing too  fine  a  nervous  adjustment.  Meantime  the  prob- 
lem faces  us  at  each  step  of  the  child's  life,  and  the  worst 
solution  is  to  let  go  and  allow  the  child  to  drift.  We  must 
attempt  the  problem  with  all  the  devotion,  patience  and 
wisdom  we  can  summon. 

A  further  warning  must  be  given  to  both  parents  and 
teachers:  work  should  never  be  assigned  arbitrarily  as 

*  "  Whoever  is  able  to  maintain  the  order  and  discipline  necessary 
to  merely  intellectual  or  knowledge  teaching,  will  leave  upon  the 
minds  of  his  pupils  genuine  moral  impressions,  without  even  pro- 
posing that  as  an  end.  If  the  teacher  has  the  consummation  of  tact 
that  makes  the  pupils  to  any  degree  in  love  with  the  work,  so  as  to 
make  them  submit  with  cheerful  and  willing  minds  to  all  the  needful 
restraints,  and  to  render  them  on  the  whole  well-disposed  to  himself 
and  to  each  other,  he  is  a  moral  instructor  of  a  high  order,  whether 
he  means  it  or  not." — Bain,  Education  as  a  Science,  pp.  401-402. 

^  "But  above  all,  external  activity  must  never  be  so  much  orev- 
stimulated  that  mental  respiration — alternation  of  acts  of  concen- 
tration and  reflection — is  disturbed  thereby.  There  are  natures 
with  whom,  from  their  earliest  years,  the  teacher's  principle  must  be 
to  keep  within  duo  limits  all  external  incitements  to  their  activity." 
-  Herbart,  The  Science  of  Education,  translated  by  Felkin,  p.  241. 


MORAL  EDUCATION  THROUGH  WORK         99 

V 

punishment.  Of  course,  the  child  should  be  required  as 
far  as  possible  to  repair  damages  he  has  done:  that  is  one 
of  the  most  helpful  elements  of  discipline.  But  to  assign 
a  specific  piece  of  work  as  punishment  for  a  moral  offense 
with  which  it  is  not  connected,  is  to  render  the  work  dis- 
tasteful, prevent  its  transformation  into  free,  spontaneous 
action,  and  so  do  positive  harm  instead  of  attaining  the 
moral  ends  work  should  further. 

Parents  and  teachers  alike  should  be  alert  to  discover 
through  all  the  work  that  is  done  the  bent  of  the  child  and 
the  special  combination  of  abilities  he  possesses.  For 
work  in  line  with  the  future  vocation  and  conforming  to  the 
tendencies  of  the  individual  has  a  high  value,  since  it  most 
powerfully  awakens  the  interest  that  will  transform  each 
of  the  lower  types  of  action  into  the  next  higher.  Such 
work  alone  is  not  enough,  but  it  should  be  the  centre  of 
our  demand,  li  is  absurd  to  require  the  individual  to 
work  in  the  main  at  what  he  is  least  fitted  to  do.  We 
should  focus  his  activity  along  the  line  of  his  greatest 
pov\^er. 

Thus,  while  education  in  work  is  a  precious  part  of  our 
moral  equipment,  it  is  the  sheerest  folly  to  multiply  unnec- 
essary obstacles,  as  was  so  often  done  in  the  older  educa- 
tion. We  may  make  life  as  easy  as  possible,  it  is  still  pain- 
fully difficult,  if  it  he  life.  So  with  education:  appeal  to 
the  child's  interest  in  every  possible  way  that  is  not  harm- 
fully adventitious,  make  every  subject  as  easy  and  simple 
as  possible,  and  there  will  be  plenty  of  dead  work  for  all 
educative  purposes  if  we  really  teach  the  subjects  in  hand. 
Similarlv,  it  is  not  necessarv  to  ask  the  child  to  'make 
bricks  without  straw,'  to  wipe  the  dishes  without  a  cloth, 
or  put  them  on  a  shelf  he  cannot  reach^  to  secure  the  moral 


i^lOOt/  MORAL    EDUCATION 

value  of  household  work.  So  we  do  not  need  to  put  the 
child  in  the  way  of  temptation  in  order  to  strengthen  his 
character.  Remove  all  unnecessary  temptation,  make  the 
path  of  right  living  as  smooth  and  attractive  as  possible, 
and  if  the  child  really  live,  there  will  be  temptation  enough 
and  to  spare  for  all  purposes  of  moral  culture. 

The  moral  education  work  gives  should  come,  then,  not 
through  unnecessary  obstacles  and  adventitious  tasks,  but 
by  mastering  the  difficulties  that  are  inevitable  in  the  path 
of  right  living.  We  need  have  no  fear  that  the  process  of 
transforming  work  into  play  may  go  too  far.  There  is  no 
danger  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  will  come  too  soon. 
The  free,  spontaneous  action,  as  a  rule,  expresses  a  more 
earnest  effort  than  the  one  partly  forced.  Thus,  while 
holding  children  to  the  faithful  performance  of  the  work 
necessary  for  the  ends  that  are  worth  while,  we  should 
rejoice  at  every  step  in  the  transforming  of  painful  effort 
into  free  and  joyous  action,  since  that  is  the  law  of  moral 
growth. 


XI 


THE  MORAL  INFLUENCE  OF  ENVIRONMENT: 

ART  AND  NATURE 

Next  in  value  to  the  activities  of  the  child  as  a  means  of 
moral  education  is  the  reaction  of  the  surrounding  world 
upon  him.  This  needs  to  be  considered  in  every  phase, 
since  we  can  determine  it  so  much  more  than  is  possible 
with  the  child's  action.  Of  more  importance  than  is 
usually  realized  are  the  relatively  statical  conditions  of 
environment.  If  less  powerful  in  the  single  impression 
than  more  active  influences,  by  their  steady  and  insistent 
presence  they  weave  themselves  into  the  very  spirit  of  the 
child. 

Thus  the  problem  of  school  buildings,  furnishings  and 
grounds  is  one,  not  merely  of  economic  significance,  but 
of  moral  importance.  It  is  hard  to  exaggerate  the  moral 
value  of  light,  air  and  cleanliness  in  the  child's  immediate 
environment.  Self-respect  and  aspiration  go  along  with 
breathing  good  air;  and  clean,  light  rooms  make  for 
moral  uprightness.  This  influence  comes  first  through 
the  immediate  effect  on  the  physical  health  and  growth 
of  the  children.  Physical  soundness  is  not  an  indis- 
pensable condition  of  moral  character,  and  it  may  co- 
exist with  moral  depravity,  but  it  is  the  surest  founda- 
tion on  which  to  build  a  positively  good  character.  It  is 
true,  the  effort  to  rise  above  some  form  of  bodily  suffering 


1^2  MORAL    EDUCATION 

will,  in  essentially  noble  natures,  often  develop  a  moral 
heroism  that  exalts  and  sanctifies  character;  nevertheless, 
physical  health  is  a  predisposing  cause  of  moral  soundness, 
and  a  depressed,  poorly  developed  organism,  especially  if 
this  be  due  to  general  conditions  rather  than  a  specific 
disease,  is  apt  to  lead  to  distortion  of  moral  character. 

Beyond  the  immediate  physical  efi^ect,  surrounding  con- 
ditions may  influence  the  moral  life  through  the  chastening, 
exalting  and  harmonizing  effect  of  beauty.  It  is  a  grave 
mistake  to  regard  beauty  as  a  dispensable  luxury  or  adorn- 
ment of  life,  ministering  only  to  pleasure.  Beauty  is 
useful  in  the  highest  sense.  Without  going  so  far  as  those 
who  regard  moral  goodness  as  only  part  of  the  larger 
harmony  we  call  beauty,  we  may  recognize  that  beauty  can 
be  utilized  as  a  powerful  instrument  in  giving  harmony, 
peace  and  elevation  to  the  spirit.  It  is  true,  ugly  forms  of 
degeneration  appear  where  beauty  is  sought  merely  as  a 
means  of  self-indulgence,  but  that  is  true  of  every  good  in 
life.  Children  are  seldom  in  danger  of  the  attitude  of  the 
aesthetic  voluptuary;  and  quietly  and  simply  beautiful 
grounds,  buildings  and  school-rooms  will  exercise  an 
unobtrusive  but  cumulative  influence  over  the  child,  not 
only  fitting  him  for  the  conscious  appreciation  of  art  later 
on,  but  ennobling  and  refining  his  inner  life. 

To  exercise  this  effect  in  fullest  measure  the  beauty 
should  be  adapted  to  the  child's  phase  of  development;  to 
his  need  however,  not  to  the  whim  of  his  desire.  I  am  not 
of  those  who  believe  that  we  should  study  to  find  just  what 
the  child  likes  and  then  furnish  that.  To  do  so  would  be 
to  follow  exactly  the  policy  of  the  worst  kind  of  newspaper, 
which  boasts  of  giving  just  what  the  people  want;  and 
surely  its  'children's  page'  is  not  an  ideal  instrument  of 


THE    MORAL    INFLUENCE    OF    ART    AND    NATURE         103 

moral  culture.  All  good  teaching  must  adapt  itself  to 
those  who  are  to  be  taught,  but  it  need  not  give  what  they 
think  they  want,  and  it  should  always  give  that  which  is 
somewhat  above  the  learner's  present  point  of  development 
that  it  may  lead  him  on. 

Moreover,  on  any  plane  of  development  it  is  possible  to 
respond  to  the  highest  art.  It  has  been  hastily  and  unwar- 
rantably inferred  from  the  theory  of  evolution  that  the  child 
and  the  race  begin,  both  in  expression  and  appreciation, 
with  the  clumsy  and  the  imperfect,  and  grow  gradually 
toward  perfect  art.  This  is  simply  not  true.  Of  course 
on  any  plane  there  must  be  mastery  of  the  technique  of 
expression  natural  to  that  plane,  but  with  such  mastery, 
the  art  may  be  as  perfect  for  one  phase  of  development  as 
for  another.  The  baby  waves  a  good-by  with  a  grace  and 
beauty  of  arm  and  hand  movement  the  best  trained  actress 
cannot  equal.  A  simple  folk-song  is  as  perfect  art  as  a 
Wagner  opera.  The  Hymn  to  the  Dawn  in  the  early  Vedic 
poems  is  as  artistic  as  Milton's  Lycidas.  An  early  Greek 
myth  may  rival  Goethe's  Faust  in  the  harmony  and  beauty 
of  its  artistic  expression  and  interpretation  of  life.  Thus 
life  on  any  plane  may  have  perfect  artistic  expression,  and 
the  response  to  that  expression  on  the  same  plane  is  always 
natural  and  possible.  Therefore  the  adaptation  of  art  to 
the  phase  of  development  does  not  mean  beginning  with 
slovenly  imperfection  and  working  toward  artistic  har- 
mony; it  means  that  art,  while  perfect,  must  be,  in  both 
content  and  form,  close  to  the  life  on  the  particular  plane 
of  growth. 

I  dwell  on  this  principle  because  it  is  so  often  violated 
today.  The  art  we  give  children  should  deal  with  subjects 
they  can  appreciate  and  be  expressed  in  terms  they  can 


104  MORAL   EDUCATION 

understand,  but  it  need  not  and  should  not  be  merely  what 
the  child  thinks  he  likes.  He  may  express  a  decided 
preference  for  some  vulgar,  ephemeral  song  over  a  simple, 
child  folk-song  from  the  German,  but  that  is  no  reason  why 
we  should  feed  him  the  former.  ]\Iost  children  prefer 
candy  to  oatm^eal  mush,  and  cake  to  whole-wheat  bread, 
yet  the  parent  who  allows  the  child's  caprice  to  be  the  guide 
in  this  matter  injures  everybody  but  the  doctor. 

Cannot  we  take  a  hint  from  Nature  ?  She  does  not 
make  one  kind  of  sunshine  for  children  and  another  for 
adults,  though  I  grant  you  it  may  be  a  different  sunshine  in 
the  child's  reaction;  nor  does  she  make  flowers  on  different 
principles  for  varying  ages  of  human  development.  She 
pours  out  the  living  flood  of  beauty,  infinite  in  form  but 
one  in  principle,  and  we  grow  in  changing  appreciation  of 
it.  Thus  there  is  not  one  kind  of  beauty  for  children 
and  another  for  grown  people.  The  kind  of  beauty  we 
want  about  children  is  beauty;  not  a  fashionable  adorn- 
ment in  obedience*  to  the  changing  whim  of  taste,  but 
simple,  natural,  harmonious  beauty.^  In  the  school 
grounds  we  need  trees  well-grouped,  grass  and  flowers. 
The  rooms  should  be  spacious,  well-lighted,  quietly  col- 
ored, and  adorned  with  a  few  simple  works  of  art.  The 
subjects  of  these  may  well  be  close  to  the  child's  world,  and 
the  form  and  color  should  be  simple  rather  than  complex, 
but  every  picture  should  be  a  true  work  of  art.     Further, 

^  "Reason  and  observation,  as  well  as  mj'-  own  experience,  assure 
me  also  that  it  is  great  poetry' — even  the  greatest — which  the  young- 
est crave,  and  upon  which  they  may  be  fed,  because  it  is  the  simplest. 
Nature  does  not  write  down  her  sunsets,  her  starr}-  skies,  her  moun- 
tains, and  her  oceans  in  some  smaller  style,  to  suit  the  comprehension 
of  little  children;  they  do  not  need  any  such  dilution." — Lucy  Lar- 
coM,  A  New  England  Girlhood  OutUiied  from  Memory,  p.  135.  Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1889  (?). 


THE   MORAL   INFLUENCE   OF  ART   AND   NATURE         105 

frequent  opportunities  should  be  given  the  children  both  to 
hear  and  sing  simple,  beautiful  music.  As  no  other  art  so 
completely  expresses  and  directly  appeals  to  the  emotional 
life  as  music,  it  has  a  special  function  in  giving  harmony 
and  serenity  to  the  spirit.^ 

The  moral  effect  of  this  environment  of  beautv  comes 
largely  through  its  inevitable  impression  upon  the  child, 
without  his  conscious  effort.  The  normal  reaction  of 
children  on  beauty  is  different  from  that  of  the  cultivated 
adult.  Indeed,  in  our  conscious  appreciation  is  a  kind  of 
withdrawal  from  the  world  we  appreciate.  Perhaps  this 
accounts  for  the  element  of  sadness  in  our  response  to  the 
beautiful  in  nature  or  art.  The  child'.s  reaction  is  generic, 
an  unconscious  response  of  his  whole  being.  If  the  sun 
shines  he  plays  as  buoyantly  as  the  birds  sing,  without 
stopping  to  say  to  himself  that  the  sunshine  is  beautiful. 
So  the  presence  of  an  harmonious  artistic  environment  may 
exalt  the  child's  spirit,  without  reflection  or  an  analysis 
of  his  sensations  on  the  child's  part.  To  force  the  beauty 
upon  him  and  compel  him  to  study  it  reflectively,  before  he 
is  able  to  appreciate  it  consciously,  may  be  to  do  great 
harm:  disgusting  the  child  now,  and  emasculating  for 
future  use  an  influence  that  ought  to  be  powerful  when  the 
time  for  the  conscious  response  to  it  arrives. 

It  is  not,  let  me  repeat,  that  the  beauty  can  be  too  high 
or  the  art  too  perfect.  Even  art  whose  subjects  are  far 
beyond  the  child's  comprehension  may  exercise  a  good 
influence.     The  Sistine  Madonna  that  looks  down  from 

^  I  do  not  make  the  obvious  application  to  literature  here,  as  I 
have  reserved  that  art  for  discussion  in  the  chapters  on  indirect 
ethical  instruction.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  the  prin- 
ciple does  apply  unreservedly,  and  that  the  literature  that  is  given 
to  children  on  any  plane,  should  be,  on  that  plane,  the  highest  art. 


106  MORAL    EDUCATION 

the  wall  of  his  school-room  may  prepare  the  child,  all  un- 
consciously to  him,  to  respond  later  to  a  loftier  ideal  of 
motherhood,  and  uncomprehended  music  may  deepen 
the  rhythm  of  his  soul.  But  to  force  the  child  into  an 
attitude  normal  to  the  adult  defeats  what  should  be  our 
aim  now  and  later. 

IMuch  of  our  current  teaching  violates  this  principle. 
We  have  been  so  anxious  to  enrich  the  child's  spirit  and 
enlarge  his  opportunities  that  we  have  made  the  same 
mistake  in  teaching  beauty  in  art  and  nature,  we  made 
earlier  in  teaching  science,  namely,  arranging  the  material 
by  the  logic  of  the  mature  mind,  and  teaching  it  in  harmony 
with  the  adult  attitude.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  how 
little  even  cultivated  children  get  consciously  from  works 
of  art  that  are  full  of  meaning  and  beauty  for  us.  Not  long 
ago  I  took  two  children,  who  had  always  lived  in  good  sur- 
roundings, leisurely  through  the  Pitti  Palace  in  Florence, 
not  forcing  in  any  way  their  interest  or  attention,  but  trying 
to  answer  such  questions  as  they  asked  in  the  presence  of 
the  marvelous  paintings  the  gallery  holds.  Three  months 
later  the  children  were  overheard  conversing  about  their 
visit  to  the  Pitti  Palace.  The  girl,  eleven,  said:  "Do  you 
remember  the  picture  of  that  woman  who  was  killing  her- 
self with  a  snake?"  (a  rather  commonplace  and  theatrical 
Cleopatra  by  Guido  Reni).  "Yes,"  answered  the  boy  of 
eight,  "  and  do  you  remember  that  lovely  bath-tub  ?  "  That 
was  all!  The  host  of  wonderful  pictures  remained  un- 
mentioned.  And  yet  I  do  not  mean  that  the  experience 
was  of  no  value.  Rather  I  believe  the  unconscious  influ- 
ence was  far  beyond  what  the  child  could  recognize  or 
state.  The  touch  upon  his  soul  was  lasting;  and  art  may 
always  have  a  little  nearer  meaning  because  he  wandered 


THE   MORAL   INFLUENCE   OF  ART    AND   NATURE         107 

through  the  galleries  of  Florence.  But  that  good  effect 
could  come  only  if  the  child's  attitude  was  not  forced  and 
made  over  into  an  anomalous  imitation  of  the  adult's. 
Thus  we  need  to  make  the  child's  environment  as  beautiful 
as  possible,  but  to  let  this  act  as  a  quiet  background  whose 
influence  must  be  largely  unconscious. 

So  far  I  have  spoken  only  of  the  school.  Obviously  the 
principle  applies  quite  as  significantly  to  the  home,  though 
there  it  is  less  easy  to  carry  out  universally,  owing  to  the 
economic  conditions  under  which  so  large  a  part  of  our 
people  must  live.  It  is  our  fault  if  we  do  not  apply  it  to 
the  schools,  and  more  completely  in  proportion  to  the  local 
difficulty  of  carrying  it  out  in  the  homes.  The  poorer  the 
quarter  of  the  city,  the  more  crowded  and  sordid  the  con- 
ditions of  its  home  life,  the  greater  is  the  need  for  spacious, 
beautiful  school  grounds  and  buildings,  with  artistic  rooms. 
It  is  a  sardonic  evidence  of  the  breakdown  of  our  democ- 
racy that  we  reverse  this  principle,  putting  the  most  beau- 
tiful school  environment  just  where  the  children  need  it 
least,  because  its  main  physical  and  moral  effects  are 
accomplished  in  their  homes. 

However,  there  are  difficulties  in  the  homes  of  the  rich 
as  well  as  in  those  of  the  poor.  The  unavoidable  ugliness 
of  poverty  is  perhaps  less  morally  harmful  than  the  gor- 
geous ugliness  of  extravagant  and  tasteless  expenditure  of 
wealth.  If  dirt  is  'matter  out  of  place,'  certainly  there  is 
more  of  it  in  some  rich  homes  than  in  many  poor  ones. 
The  effect  of  over  rich  and  tasteless  surroundings  is  not 
only  to  benumb  the  spirit  but  to  give  false  ideals  and  make 
the  child  blase  before  he  has  had  time  to  live.  The  'god- 
dess of  limits'  presides  as  rigidly  over  our  enjoyments  as 
over  our  arts.     It  is  impossible  to  eat  more  than  five  or 


) 


108  MORAL   EDUCATION 

six  good  meals  a  day  and  really  enjoy  them;  and  to  heap 
up  even  pleasing  objects  in  our  environment  beyond  rigid 
limits  is  to  produce  moral  nausea.  Perhaps  the  greatest 
folly  of  vast  wealth  is  that  one  can  do  so  little  helpfully 
with  it  for  oneself  or  for  others. 

Thus  it  is  as  necessary  to  bring  simplicity,  limitation  and 
harmony  into  the  homes  of  the  rich,  as  to  bring  light,  air, 
space,  beauty  to  the  homes  of  the  poor.  The  problem  of 
the  poor  is  the  more  pitiable,  however,  because  they  can 
do  much  less  to  help  themselves,  since  they  are  so  cruelly 
handicapped  by  our  present  economic  and  social  condi- 
tions. Still,  even  with  the  very  poor,  how  much  can  be 
done  by  a  little  initiative  and  aw^akening  of  courage  and 
desire.  This  has  been  shown  by  the  work  of  every  social 
settlement  in  transforming  the  homes  in  the  district  in 
which  it  has  been  set  down.  It  is  evident  that  for  parents 
to  improve  the  home  conditions  about  their  children,  there 
is  needed  not  only  some  measure  of  economic  freedom 
and  resource,  but  conscious  desire  and  effort,  and  that  of 
the  two  elements  in  the  solution  of  the  problem  the  second 
is  even  more  important  than  the  first. 

There  is  the  same  need  then  in  home  and  school ;  where 
one  fails  we  must  seek  to  compensate  through  the  other. 
It  is  a  problem  of  moral  education,  incumbent  on  the  whole 
people  and  intimately  touching  the  national  welfare,  that 
,  everything  possible  should  be  done  to  make  the  surround- 
/  ings  of  children  in  home,  school  and  community  as  simple, 
clean  and  artistically  beautiful  as  possible. 

The  moral  influence  of  beauty  may  come  to  children 
even  more  through  the  nature  world  than  through  art. 
Obviously,  the  two  cannot  be  completely  separated,  for 
human  art  reaches  some  of  its  most  educative  expression 


THE   MORAL   INFLUENCE   OF   ART    AND   NATURE        101 

by  cooperating  with  nature,  as  in  the  artistic  planning  o': 
grounds,  gardens  and  shrubbery.  In  a  large  way,  how- 
ever, we  may  distinguish  between  the  living  nature  world 
and  the  creations  of  human  genius.  Speaking  metaphoric- 
ally, we  may  say  that  nature  is  God's  art,  while  art  is 
man's  highest  nature.  Therefore,  while  art  goes  further 
in  the  expression  of  human  life,  it  does  not  attain  the 
perfect  serenity,  simplicity  and  harmony  of  nature.  That 
is  w^hy  Nature  is  so  calming  to  us  that  we  turn  to  her  more 
and  more  from  the  stress  of  our  modern  life.  Children  are 
even  closer  than  we  to  the  great  Nature-mother,  and  if  they 
can  have  constant  opportunity  for  contact  with  her  beauty, 
it  will  build  itself  into  their  very  spirits,  giving  a  dignity 
and  harmony  difficult  to  gain  in  any  other  way.  It  is  not 
that  we  should  force  the  beauty  upon  the  child's  conscious- 
ness :  that  is  as  fatal  in  the  case  of  nature  as  of  art ;  but  that 
we  should  give  him  ample  opportunity  to  live  in  the  lap 
of  his  best  nurse — Nature. 

It  is  not  only  the  beauty  but  the  truth  of  nature  that  is 
of  direct  value  for  moral  education.  Nature  never  lies  to 
us;  there  is  nothing  there  comparable  to  the  garment  of 
conventionality  and  deceit  worn  by  human  society.  Na- 
ture is  real  as  every  unspoiled  child  is  real,  not  understand- 
ing pretense  and  affectation.  Thus  Nature  is  the  great 
teacher  of  sincerity.  This  most  essential  moral  quality 
will  be  deepened  in  children  by  living  contact  with  the  out- 
door world  as  is  possible  in  no  other  way. 

There  is  a  still  deeper  element  of  moral  culture  that  may 
come  from  Nature,  not  simply  by  responding  to  her  beauty 
and  truth,  but  by  acting  in  harmony  with  her  laws.  I  have 
already  touched  upon  this  in  discussing  moral  education 
throuo:h  work,  bu*  it  is  so  important  as  to  demand  special 


110  MORAL   EDUCATION 

treatment.  Human  laws  change  and  fail,  society  involves 
much  that  is  irrational,  but  the  natural  world  is  one  of 
regular,  hard,  inexorable  law.  In  human  society,  in  the 
conflict  between  men,  it  is  possible  to  '  succeed '  sometimes 
by  lying  and  trickery,  but  not  when  your  action  touches 
nature.  If  you  plant  chaff  instead  of  grain,  nothing  grows. 
If  you  shirk  deep,  regular  plowing  your  crop  is  lessened. 
If  you  try  to  live  without  good  food,  sleep,  fresh  air,  physic- 
al action,  you  are  as  surely  punished  as  the  days  and 
nights  succeed  each  other.  Life  and  growth  are  possible 
only  by  obedience  to  natural  laws :  we  are  free  to  obey  and 
live,  or  to  break  ourselves  against  the  iron  walls  of  nature's 
laws  and  die;   there  is  no  third  freedom  of  caprice. 

There  are  two  elements  in  the  obedience  required  of  us : 
conformity  and  action.  These  are,  indeed,  two  phases  of 
one  moral  quality;  the  one  being  harmony  with  law,  the 
other  work  in  fulfillment  of  law.  A  wonderful  develop- 
ment of  character  results  from  these  two  simple  elements 
of  obedience  demanded  of  us  by  the  natural  world.  Some 
of  the  strongest  and  worthiest  men  and  women  are  built 
up  by  the  simple  struggle  of  life  in  obedience  to  necessity. 

Consider  such  men  and  women  as  Pierre  Loti  presents 
in  his  Iceland  Fisherman,  which  interprets  so  truly  the 
actual  Breton  fisher-life.  From  the  coast  of  Brittany  all 
the  able-bodied  men  go  away  in  March  to  Iceland  or  New- 
foundland, leaving  the  towns  and  villages  inhabited  by 
women  and  little  children  and  old  men.  In  the  autumn 
the  boats  return — not  all  of  them,  for  nearly  every  season 
some  are  lost,  and  the  walls  of  the  little  chapels  are  covered 
with  tablets  asking  prayers  for  the  sailors  who  went  down 
in  certain  storms.  The  returning  boats  bring  fish  repre- 
senting perhaps  one  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred 


THE   MORAL  INFLUENCE   OF  ART    AND   NATURE         111 

dollars  for  each  sailor  as  the  season's  catch.  Hard,  nar- 
row lives,  full  of  struggle  with  the  most  treacherous  aspect 
of  nature,  involving  grinding  hardship,  for  the  women 
even  more  than  the  men;  and  yet  if  France  could  only 
boast  that  all  her  citizens  were  like  the  Breton  fisher-folk, 
there  would  have  been  no  Dreyfus  scandal  and  Paris  would 
not  hold  the  elements  of  corruption  that  eat  the  heart  out 
of  her  life  today. 

We  must  interpret  moral  education  in  terms  large  enough 
to  include  such  training  in  the  school  of  necessity,  if  we  are 
not  to  lose  its  essential  meaning.  Thus  we  need  to  bring 
children  into  contact  with  this  nature  world,  not  so  as  to 
crush  or  depress  them  with  its  inexorable  forces,  but  to 
give  them  the  strength  that  comes  from  simple  obedience 
and  work  in  harmony  with  its  laws.  Here  again  the 
superior  opportunities  of  farm  life  are  evident,  not  only 
because  its  activities  are  more  liberal  and  varied,  but 
because  they  are  in  direct  contact  with  nature.  The  care 
of  animals,  the  work  in  the  garden,  the  thousandfold 
activities  of  farm  life,  all  teach  the  regular,  hard,  beneficent 
laws  of  nature,  and,  slowly  but  steadily,  active  harmony 
with  them  is  built  into  the  very  structure  of  the  child's 
instincts  and  habits. 

What  of  the  vast  number  of  children  who  have  little  or  no 
opportunity  for  regular  contact  with  nature?*  They  fur- 
nish our  grave  problem.  There  are  three  ways  in  which 
we  can  work  toward  its  solution : 

1.  Everything  possible  should  be  done  to  stimulate  the 
movement,  already  strong,  away  from  the  cities  toward 
country  or  at  least  suburban  life.  Parents  should  be 
taught  to  recognize  that  it  is  to  the  child's  moral  interest 
to  give  him  his  early  years  in  the  country  rather  than  in 


112  MORAL   EDUCATION 

the  city;  and  where  that  is  impossible,  or  the  sacrifice  of 
other  interests  would  be  too  great,  earnest  thought  and 
attention  must  be  given  to  compensating  for  the  influ- 
ences the  child  loses.  It  is  true,  a  qualifying  principle 
comes  in  here :  it  is  wrong  to  desert  those  who  need  us, 
and  the  interest  of  the  family  must  be  considered  in  rela- 
tion to  the  larger  need  of  society.  Still,  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  the  movement  away  from  the  congested 
centres,  on  the  part  of  thoughtful  people,  is  sane  and 
right. 

2.  Each  of  us  should  recognize  it  as  his  personal  duty  to 
advance  in  every  way  the  movements  working  to  change 
the  character  of  our  cities  from  economic  swarming-hives 
to  human  centres  where  life  may  be  sane  and  nature  within 
the  reach  of  all.  Public  parks  should  be  put  down  in  each 
little  part  of  the  crowded  sections  of  the  city,  instead  of 
being  segregated  for  show  in  the  fashionable  districts. 
Each  school  should  have,  not  only  beautiful  grounds  about 
it,  but  the  gardens,  mentioned  in  the  previous  chapter, 
where  the  children  may  cultivate  plants  and  flowers,  and 
get  something  of  the  first-hand  contact  with  nature.  If  the 
land  is  high  in  price,  the  greater  is  the  need  to  pull  down  a 
tenement  and  open  up  a  breathing-space  where  a  bit  of 
nature  may  come  in  to  bless  the  children.  No  economic 
cost  is  to  be  weighed  against  the  moral  gain  that  would 
thus  come.  Might  it  not  even  be  well  to  make  deliberate 
arrangements  in  connection  with  each  school,  in  the 
crowded  section  of  a  city,  for  keeping  and  raising  a  few 
animal  pets,  that  the  children  might  have,  if  only  in  a 
slight  measure,  the  moral  good  that  comes  from  caring  for 
such  friends  ? 

3.  If  we  cannot  bring  city  children  into  contact  with 


THE   MORAL   INFLUENCE   OF   ART    AND   NATURE         113 

nature  throughout  the  year,  we  may  often  do  so  for  the 
most  beautiful  part  of  it.  While  there  are  obvious  moral 
evils  in  the  idle  life  of  typical  *  summer  resorts/  the  grow- 
ing tendency  to  take  children  to  farms,  camps  and  villages 
for  a  part  of  the  summer  is  full  of  promise.  Unfortunately 
this  is  still  confined  largely  to  the  children  of  the  prosper- 
ous, though  fresh-air  charities  take  an  increasing  number 
of  children  each  summer  to  the  country  for  a  few  days  or 
weeks.  If  direct  contact  with  nature  is  so  important  for 
moral  education,  is  it  possible  that  we  may  come  to  regard 
it  as  a  public  duty  to  give  all  children  an  annual  oppor- 
tunity for  such  experience  ?  May  we  come  to  feel  that  it  is 
as  much  a  function  of  the  state  to  cooperate  with  parents 
in  sending  all  city  children  to  well-managed  and  carefully 
instructed  summer  farms  and  camps,  as  to  provide  build- 
ings and  teachers  for  ordinary  instruction?  I  have  no 
answer  to  the  question,  but  certainly  the  experiment  would 
be  less  dangerous  than  free  meals  to  school  children  as 
tried  in  England,  and  hardly  more  so  than  free  text-books. 
Meantime  vacation  schools,  so  wisely  begun  recently  in 
certain  of  the  larger  cities,  can  be  utilized  to  furnish  some 
measure  of  opportunity  for  contact  with  nature.  The 
great  need  is  that  we  should  realize  the  importance  of  giving 
the  child  such  opportunity.  If  we  appreciate  fully  the 
need  we  can  find  the  means  to  answer  it.  Obviously,  wide 
cooperation  is  necessary  to  any  thorough  solution  of  the 
problem.  Every  parent  and  teacher  who  is  awake  must 
not  only  seek  to  give  his  children  sane  and  active  contact 
with  nature,  but  must  aid  in  stirring  the  general  conscious- 
ness, that  this  powerful  means  for  educating  harmony,  sin- 
cerity and  active  obedience  to  law  may  be  utilized  for  all 
children. 


XII 


MORAL  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SOCIAL 
ATMOSPHERE 

We  have  studied  the  effect  of  environment  in  art  and 
nature  upon  children;  we  shall  turn  now  to  the  living 
human  world.  Before  studying  the  dynamic  influence  of 
its  institutions  and  of  persons,  let  us  consider  another  force 
that  is  relatively  statical — the  influence  of  the  social  atmos- 
phere. This  is  a  real,  if  subtle,  force  which  must  be  reck- 
oned with  for  good  or  evil,  though  it  is  a  composite  result 
from  the  action  of  many  other  forces.  Into  its  formation 
enter  the  influence  of  the  state  and  lesser  institutions,  the 
cumulative  tradition  and  social  heredity  that  perpetuate 
the  experience  of  one  generation  in  the  life  of  the  next,  the 
effect  of  the  action  both  of  the  few  powerful  individuals, 
who  set  a  standard  of  behavior  for  imitation,  and  of  the 
uncounted  multitude  of  men  and  women.  Yet  composite 
as  it  is,  the  social  atmosphere  once  formed  becomes  an 
important  influence  over  every  aspect  of  the  life  of  the 
individual.  Without  the  most  searching  analysis  we  get 
no  hint  of  the  extent  to  which  our  ideals  and  aims  as  well 
as  actions  are  merely  echoes  of  the  social  type.  Since  this 
must  always  be  so,  we  need  to  recognizee*  it  and  utilize  the 
force  as  far  as  possible  in  education.  It  is,  however,  so 
diflBcult  to  control  that  evil  effects  resulting  from  it  must 
often  be  counteracted  by  other  agencies.     There  are  two 


MORAL    INFLUENCE    OF   THE   SOCIAL   ATMOSPHERE      115 

different  aspects  of  the  influence  of  the  social  atmosphere 
upon  children, and  we  shall  consider  them  in  turn:  (1)  The 
effect  of  the  adult  society  surrounding  children;  (2)  The 
effect  of  the  child  society  in  which  they  live. 

Children  are  almost  as  much  influenced  as  we  are  by  the 
general  adult  society  about  them, — sometimes  I  think  they 
are  much  more  influenced  by  it.  Consider  how  difficult 
it  is  to  keep  a  child  simple  and  unspoiled,  with  healthy 
tastes,  in  a  society  where  money,  dress  and  fashion  are 
dominant.  It  can  be  done:  one  knows  cases  where  in 
the  worst  social  conditions  it  has  been  done;  but  the  task 
is  hard  indeed.  Where  the  parents  are  careless,  in  such 
an  atmosphere,  the  children  inevitably  slip  into  the  over- 
dressed, precocious  imitations  of  the  worst  adults  in  their 
environment.  When  the  parents  themselves  belong  to 
the  vicious  social  type,  there  is  little  to  be  done  except 
to  try  to  reform  the  parents. 

Where  the  social  atmosphere  is  one  of  grinding  poverty, 
sordid  aims  and  moral  dirt,  the  difficulties  in  another  way 
are  even  greater.  Apart  from  the  direct  danger  of  moral 
contamination  through  criminal  individuals,  it  is  all  but 
impossible  to  give  children  a  sweet,  healthy,  clean  moral 
attitude  in  such  a  society.  The  problem  in  both  cases  is 
made  more  difficult  by  the  fact  that  our  modern  city  life, 
with  its  material  aims,  industrial  tension  and  rapid  means 
of  transit,  involves  far  more  acute  separation  of  rich  and 
poor  than  was  true  o"t  older  societies  or  than  is  found  in  towns, 
villages  and  farm  life  today.  Those  parents  who  are  for- 
tunate enough  to  live  in  a  community  where  the  social 
atmosphere  is  sound  and  helpful  should  be  deeply  thankful. 

Where  parents  find  themselves  in  an  unwholesome  at- 
mosphere what  is  to  be  done  ?    The  first  and  most  positive 


116  MORAL    EDUCATION 

and  worthy  solution  is  to  strive  to  maintain  an  ideal  social 
atmosphere  in  the  home.  There  are  few  tasks  that  de- 
mand more  moral  heroism  than  this,  and  therefore  few 
that  are  so  educative  to  all  concerned,  f  The  worst  thing 
about  a  bad  social  type  is  that  it  does  not  meet  us  in  rare 
crises  when  we  might  summon  our  courage  for  a  fight,  but 
insinuates  its  influence  by  ceaseless  iteration  in  the  routine 
of  daily  life.  /  We  must  steel  ourselves  to  the  more  consist- 
ent effort  to  stand  out  against  it  where  it  is  wrong.  If  our 
neighbors  persist  in  overdressing  their  children,  we  must 
continue  to  clothe  ours  simply,  in  spite  of  sneers,  taking  the 
children  into  our  confidence  and  seeking  to  give  them  a 
courage  and  appreciation  of  the  ideal  involved  that  will 
save  them  from  moral  humiliation.  We  must  not  give 
way  to  the  temptation  to  emulate  our  acquaintances  in 
giving  children's  parties  that  are  vicious  imitations  of  the 
most  artificial  adult  society.^  If  the  ideals  in  the  general 
atmosphere  are  grossly  materialistic,  we  should  strive  the 
harder  to  keep  the  conversation  within  the  home  upon  a 
better  plane  and  steadily  hold  more  worthy  aims  before  the 
children.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  are  dwellers  in  an 
over  crowded  tenement,  we  can  strive  to  keep  our  rooms 
clean,  our  clothes  neat  and  our  talk  free  from  vulgarity,  no 
matter  how  weary  we  are  with  the  hopeless  battle  and  how 
filthy  is  our  moral  and  physical  environment. 

^  "Fashionable  parties  for  children,  those  abominations  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth,  are  but  seasoned  condiments  of  that  most  whole- 
some food  for  the  young  soul,  social  contact  with  its  peers.  That 
so  simple,  so  sweet,  so  holy,  and  so  necessary  a  thing  as  the  com- 
mingling of  little  children  in  play  and  work  with  those  of  their  own 
age  and  ability,  should  be  twisted  and  turned  into  an  artificial  fash- 
ionable party,  seems,  to  the  real  lover  of  childhood,  incredible,  save 
for  the  sad  fact  that  it  is." — Elizabeth  Harrison,  A  Study  of 
Child-Nature  from  the  Kindergarten  Stand-point,  p.  58. 


I 


MORAL   INFLUENCE   OF   THE   SOCL\L   ATMOSPHERE      11^ 

It  is  further  possible  to  secure  a  better  moral  atmosphere 
by  utilizing  the  various  opportunities  at  our  command  for 
segregating  ourselves  from  undesirable  social  groups.  The 
most  obvious  of  these  opportunities  is  to  change  our  place 
of  residence.  Usually  we  move  for  our  pleasure,  our  busi- 
ness convenience,  or  our  vanity — to  be  among  people  of 
higher  social  and  economic  position.  Of  course,  moving 
in  obedience  to  such  motives  by  no  means  assures  a  more 
moral  environment.  We  need  to  recognize  that  the  prob- 
lem of  our  place  of  residence  is  centrally  the  problem  of  the 
moral  atmosphere  to  which  we  would  subject  our  children; 
and  we  must  be  willing  to  sacrifice  a  considerable  amount 
of  pleasure,  convenience  and  vanity  for  their  moral  welfare. 

It  is  true,  fleeing  from  evil  is  a  negative  solution,  if  often 
necessary,  usually  somewhat  cowardly;  and  every  attempt 
at  social  segregation,  even  when  dictated  by  the  highest 
aims,  involves  three  evils: 

1 .  There  is  the  sad  desertion,  on  the  part  of  those  who 
can  go,  of  the  less  fortunate  who  are  tied  to  the  bad  en- 
vironment or  unawakened  to  its  evil  influences.  Rich 
or  poor,  the  more  distorted  the  social  type,  the  greater 
is  the  need  for  every  unit  family  that  stands  for  some- 
thing saner  and  higher.  One  of  the  most  perplexing 
problems  in  modern  city  life  arises  from  the  widespread 
desertion  of  the  city  by  the  better  middle  class.  We  can- 
not say  they  should  have  remained,  but  their  going  com- 
plicates the  problem. 

2.  There  is  the  less  evident,  but  none  the  less  real  danger 
of  dwarfing  the  segregated.  He  who  cuts  himself  off  from 
any  part  of  humanity  does  so  at  his  oicn  moral  risk.  Human 
nature  never  atrophies  quite  so  hopelessly  as  when  a  group 
for  its  own  selfish  interest  cuts  itself  off  from  the  whole. 


118  MORAL   EDUCATION 

Of  course  this  is  much  worse  v/hen  the  segregation  is  for 
comfort,  pleasure  or  vanity;  but  even  the  pursuit  of  a 
moral  end  may  be  selfish  if  it  is  sought  only  for  ourselves 
apart  from  the  good  of  the  whole.  There  is  no  meaner  or 
more, harmful  man  than  the  one  who  prays  God's  blessing 
only  on  his  own  family,  and — he  never  gets  blessed.^ 

3.  The  segregation  which  began  for  moral  reasons 
almost  inevitably  becomes  artificial  in  time,  and  depends 
upon  family,  money,  social  and  industrial  opportunity,  and 
not  upon  moral  endeavor.  The  social  settlement  is  the 
great  effort  to  stem  this  tide  of  the  higher  selfishness  and 
reintegrate  segregated  portions  of  humanity.  In  the 
ideals  of  its  leaders  and  the  experience  of  its  working 
hitherto,  it  is  found  that  this  reintegration  is  quite  as 
helpful  for  those  who  come  primarily  to  give  as  for  those 
who  were  expected  to  receive." 

Yet  even  in  the  social  settlement  is  some  measure  of 
segregation.  The  worker's  hands  are  upheld  by  his  asso- 
ciates.    A  little   social   atmosphere   is   created   within   a 

^  "Nothing  so  deadens  the  sympathies  and  shrivels  the  power  of 
enjoyment  as  the  persistent  keeping  away  from  the  great  opportuni- 
ties for  helpfulness  and  a  continual  ignoring  of  the  starvation  struggle 
which  makes  up  the  life  of  at  least  half  the  race.  To  shut  one's  self 
away  from  that  half  of  the  race  life  is  to  shut  one's  self  away  from 
the  most  vital  part  of  it ;  it  is  to  live  out  but  half  the  humanity  which 
we  have  been  born  heir  to  and  to  use  but  half  our  faculties." — Jane 
Addams,  The  Subjective  Necessity  for  Social  Settlements,  in 
Philanthropy  and  Social  Progress,  p.  11. 

^  "  Not  only  the  obligation,  but  the  joy,  of  thus  enteringinto  natural 
and  real  relations  with  others,  rather  than  trying  to  create  artificial 
and  strained  relations  as  dole-dispensers  and  friendly  visitors,  is 
being  brought  home  in  many  wa}'^  to  many  hearts.  When  we  have 
learned  to  value  the  friendship  of  the  woman  who  washes  our  clothes, 
and  the  man  who  carts  off  our  rubbish,  we  shall  find  it  easier  to  under- 
stand our  neighbors,  whether  poor  or  rich." — James  O.  S.  Hunting- 
ton, Philanthropy  and  Morality,  in  Philanthropy  and  Social 
Progress,  by  J.^jste  Addams,  et  al.,  pp.  200-201. 


MORAL   INFLUENCE   OF   THE   SOCIAL   ATMOSPHERE      119 

larger  one  in  a  way  impossible  to  the  average  family  in  the 
district.  Moreover,  the  social  worker  is  a  trained  and 
cultivated,  matured  man  or  woman,  with  independently 
established  ideals  of  life,  while  we  are  considering  the  influ- 
ence of  the  social  atmosphere  on  plastic  children  whose 
ideals  are  forming  in  response  to  its  type.  Thus  we  are 
compelled  to  face  a  very  perplexing  dilemma.  We  must 
segregate  our  children  socially  in  some  measure  if  we  can, 
and  to  do  so  involves  grave  moral  danger.  Hence  we  must 
balance  one  principle  against  the  other,  and  seek,  not  a 
compromise,  but  a  moral  proportion  of  the  two. 

The  solution  of  the  difficulty  comes  upon  a  higher  plane. 
The  segregation  involves  harm  through  selfishness.  If  it 
is  sought,  not  for  the  interest  of  the  individual  apart,  but 
for  the  sake  of  his  largest  service  to  the  whole,  the  moral 
danger  is  mainly  obviated.  For  instance,  we  approve  of  a 
temporary  withdrawal  from  the  world  for  the  sake  of 
returning  to  more  effective  service.  This  justifies  our 
taking  four  years  for  college,  or  periods  for  rest  and  travel. 
Even  Jesus  had  his  forty  days  in  the  wilderness,  and  every 
prophet  and  teacher  has  felt  the  necessity  of  periods  of 
withdrawal  for  the  sake  of  the  largest  service  of  humanity. 

It  is  the  same  solution  we  must  find  for  the  problem  of 
our  relation  to  different  social  groups.  Any  measure  of 
social  segregation  is  right  and  safe  only  as  it  leads  to  the 
closest  union  with  humanity  in  helpful  service  in  the  whole 
of  life.  ^  Even  with  this  aim  danger  is  present :  it  is  so  easy 
to  forget  the  end  in  the  pleasant  means.  Yet  a  good  prin- 
ciple should  not  be  given  up  or  obscured  because  people 
abuse  it.  Thus  we  must  accept,  in  so  far  as  we  are  free 
to  choose,  that  form  and  measure  of  social  segregation 
which  will  help  to  mature,  in  us  and  in  our  children,  the 


120  MORAL   EDUCATION 

most  effective  and  independent  moral  personality,  capaole 
of  the  largest  human  service.  This  moral  aim  of  human 
service  must  be  kept  constantly  before  us,  and  we  should 
rejoice  in  renouncing  the  temporary  separation  as  fast  as 
its  educational  end  is  accomplished. 

Under  the  guidance  of  this  principle  can  we  not  see  the 
mora)  place  and  value  of  the  different  forms  of  segregation 
possible  in  the  conditions  of  our  life?  It  is  not  only  by 
change  of  residence  that  we  can  influence  the  moral  atmos- 
phere about  our  children.  Any  institution  that  brings 
into  contact  with  each  other  people  who  hold  similar  moral 
ideals  is  developing  a  specific  moral  atmosphere  that 
counteracts  the  evil  in  the  general  social  type.  The  best 
illustration  I  can  give  of  this  force  is  the  work  of  the  New 
York  Ethical  Society  under  the  leadership  of  that  moral 
prophet,  Felix  Adler.  Not  only  by  its  direct  service  in 
educational,  political  and  philanthropic  ways,  but  by  join- 
ing the  hands  of  people  who  in  the  great  industrial  and 
social  maelstrom  hold  to  moral  aims  or  hunger  for  them, 
the  Ethical  Society  has  given  its  members  much  of  the  ad- 
vantage of  social  segregation,  without  removing  them  from 
the  world  that  needs  their  help  and  can  so  vitally  refresh 
and  instruct  their  spirits. 

This  type  of  influence  is  exerted  by  every  sound  church, 
whose  aim  is  not  salvation  apart  but  the  best  life  for  its 
members  in  harmony  with  the  most  effective  service  of  the 
social  whole.  It  is  difficult  to  state  strongly  enough  the 
power  of  such  a  church  to  create  a  lesser  social  atmosphere 
that  will  uphold  and  stimulate  the  members  of  the  institu- 
tion and  mold  their  ideals  of  life.  So  with  the  effect  of 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  and  the  multitude  of 
organizations  for  v/hich  they  are  the  prototype.     Like  the 


MORAL   INFLUENCE   OF   THE   SOCIAL  ATMOSPHERE      121 

churches,  these  may  exercise  a  strong  influence  for  good 
over  their  members  through  the  moral  atmosphere  they 
create;  yet  if  they  hold  themselves  apart  with  a  better- 
than-thou  attitude,  their  most  devoted  members  are  apt  to 
degenerate  into  the  effeminate  moral  weaklings  so  despised 
by  all  sound  men. 

All  that  has  been  said  of  the  influence  of  the  adult  so- 
ciety in  molding  the  character  of  our  children  applies  with 
multiplied  force  to  the  effect  of  the  child  society;  and  the 
same  principle  must  guide  our  efforts  to  regulate  the  latter. 
Schools  are  the  most  obvious  means  of  bringing  the  atmos- 
phere of  a  specific  child  society  to  bear  upon  our  children. 
By  sending  a  child  to  a  particular  day-school  we  determine 
the  moral  atmosphere  that  is  about  him  for  a  large  part  of 
his  waking  life,  and  when  the  school  is  one  at  which  the 
child  regularly  lives  three-fourths  of  the  year,  it  is  the 
relatively  constant  social  influence  upon  him. 

Unfortunately,  here,  as  in  the  problem  of  residence,  our 
action  is  governed  largely  by  motives  of  class  distinction. 
These  motives  are  shown,  not  only  in  sending  children  to 
fashionable  private  schools:  even  the  public  school,  demo- 
cratic as  we  boast  it  to  be,  expresses  much  of  the  class  sepa- 
ration that  mars  our  society.  A  school  building  naturally 
gathers  together  the  children  living  in  the  neighborhood; 
and  we  have  seen  how  different  classes  are  separated  in  resi- 
dence districts.  Moreover,  what  parent,  regarding  him- 
self as  of  the  better  class  but  compelled  by  poverty  to  live 
in  a  social  environment  he  considers  beneath  him,  will  not 
strive,  if  there  be  any  chance  of  success,  to  have  his  children 
transferred  to  a  school  in  some  other  part  of  the  com- 
munity ?  Undoubtedly  there  is  justification  for  this  atti- 
tude when  it  is  inspired  by  moral  aims  and  not  by  vanity. 


122  MORAL   EDUCATION 

for  one  bad  child  may  poison  a  whole  child  society.  If 
only  one  were  sure  that  the  transfer  would  give  a  better 
moral  environment  for  one's  children!  Occasionally  the 
worst  phases  of  child  society  are  found  among  people  who 
regard  themselves  as  of  the  better  class,  but  who  have  little 
time  and  interest  for  association  with  their  children,  and  so 
give  opportunity  for  poisonous  influences  to  creep  in  and 
spread  by  contagion. 
P  Furthermore,  all  segregation  of  children  from  the  general 
child  world  involves  the  same  evils  we  have  studied  in  con- 
nection with  separation  from  groups  of  adult  humanity. 
To  send  a  child  to  a  socially  exclusive  private  school  may 
or  may  not  be  to  protect  him  from  evil  influences  and  bring 
a  helpful  atmosphere  to  bear  upon  him;  but  even  if  this 
good  is  attained,  it  is  bought  at  the  price  of  a  certain  loss 
of  relation  to  the  larger  world  which  the  child  can  help  and 
from  which  he  has  much  to  learn.  Children  cannot  be 
taught  too  early  that  it  is  their  business  not  to  let  ''evil 
communications  corrupt  good  manners,"  but  to  regard 
every  element  of  good  influence  they  have  enjoyed  as  so 
much  obligation  to  live  to  a  standard  above  that  of  less 
fortunate  children.  I  do  not  mean  that  we  should  make 
them  moral  prigs,  thanking  God  they  are  not  as  other 
children, — the  prig  may  be  no  v/orse  than  the  vicious 
person,  he  is  certainly  no  better, — I  do  mean  that  we 
should  strive  as  early  and  as  fast  as  possible  to  make 
their  moral  character  independent,  active  instead  of  pas- 
sive with  reference  to  environment. 


U 


On  this  basis,  then,  I  think  we  may  say  that  the  public 
school  should  be  the  rule,  the  private  school  the  exception. 
Children  should  have  the  larger,  freer  contact  with  a  mixed 
group  of  all  sorts  of  children,  just  so  far  as  we  can  dare  to 


MORAL    INFLUENCE    OF   THE    SOCIAL   ATMOSPHERE      123 

trust  them;  and  the  hmitations  of  this  wider  contact 
should  be  for  specific  reasons  in  individual  cases.  Of 
course  I  am  not  considering  the  relative  excellence  of  pri- 
vate and  public  schools  in  equipment  and  teaching,  nor  the 
great  service  the  private  school  can  do  the  other  by  setting 
a  standard  possible  only  with  a  larger  expenditure  of 
money,  and  by  avoiding  the  evils  of  centralization  and 
uniformity  toward  which  our  public  schools  in  some  com- 
munities are  tending.  We  are  dealing  here  with  one  pointy 
the  influence  of  the  social  atmosphere  in  a  child  society; 
and  in  that  aspect  of  the  problem,  the  larger  measure  of 
democracy  in  the  public  school  gives  it  an  advantage  which 
should  never  be  foregone  except  for  a  specific  greater  good. 
Perhaps  the  problem  can  be  seen  most  clearly  if  we  take 
the  extreme  case  of  an  *  only  child.'  Where  there  is  but  one 
child  in  the  family  the  educational  problem  is  very  difficult, 
since  there  is  no  chance  within  the  family  for  the  education 
that  comes  from  the  free  play  of  the  child's  will  with  the 
wills  of  other  children,  and  this  discipline  must  always  be 
sought  outside.  If  now  the  parent  makes  the  mistake  of 
employing  a  private  tutor  for  such  a  child,  no  excellence 
of  teaching  can  compensate  for  the  fatal  loss  of  the 
influence  of  a  general  child  society.  Thus  there  is  even 
a  positive  value  in  the  large  roomful  of  children  in  the 
public  school,  where  little  individual  care  and  attention 
can  be  given  the  pupils.^  We  want  individual  care  and  at- 
'.  :ntion  for  each  child,  but  even  more  the  child  needs  con- 
act  with  a  wide  representative  human  world ;  and  nothing 
can  take  its  place  or  compensate  for  the  lack  of  it. 

*  "  It  is  necessary  to  treat  people  as  individuals ;  but  it  does  them 
a  world  of  good  sometimes  to  treat  a  great  many  of  them  together, 
and  to  let  them  get  used  to  it  as  best  they  may.  ' — Le  Baron 
P^ussELL  Briggs,  ScJiool,  College  and  Character,  p.  46. 


124  MORAL   EDUCATION 

A  very  different  form  of  social  segregation  occurs  where 
the  separation  is  in  regard  to  age  and  sex  with  no  immediate 
reference  to  class  distinction  or  moral  character.  Ob- 
viously such  segregation  need  not  directly  violate  the 
principles  of  democracy.  Still  our  main  argument  applies 
without  reservation.  The  child  needs  contact  with  the 
general  human  world,  with  adults  and  children  of  both 
sexes  and  all  ages.  Any  separation  from  the  whole  of 
|ociety  is  to  be  admitted  only  for  a  specific  gain  greater 
than  the  loss,  and  only  if  through  the  separation  a  more 
vital  union  with  humanity  is  made  possible. 

Particularly  important  is  the  application  of  our  principle 
to  the  question  of  the  segregation  of  the  sexes.  The  moral 
atmosphere  is  much  more  sane  and  clean  where  men  and 
women,  boys  and  girls,  meet  in  natural  human  relation- 
ship. Always  there  is  a  loss  of  a  powerful  lever  for  good 
conduct  and  a  force  in  molding  sound  ideals  where  the 
sexes  are  separated  in  the  larger  areas  of  their  activity. 
Thus  coeducation  should  be  the  rule,  the  separation  of 
the  sexes  the  exception,  admitted  only  where  we  believe 
the  specific  gain  more  than  compensates  for  the  moral  loss.^ 
Further,  it  is  most  important  that  children  should  be  con- 
stantly in  touch  with  both  parents  and  influenced  by  teach- 
ers of  both  sexes,  if  the  best  moral  results  are  to  be  attained. 

It  must  be  frankly  recognized,  however,  that  the  sepa- 
ration from  the  whole  of  society  of  a  group  of  individuals 
alike  in  age,  sex  and  interest  gives  a  tremendous  stimulus 
to  organization  and  activity.  This  in  its  bad  form  is  the 
'gang'  spirit;  in  its  good   aspect  it  is  the   instinct   that 

^  In  advocating  coeducation,  I  do  not  mean  identical  education 
for  the  two  sexes ;  and  I  recognize  fully  the  incidental  harm  that  has 
followed  the  opening  of  men's  courses  to  women  without  reference 
to  the  different  needs  and  problems  of  the  latter. 


MORAL    INFLUENCE    OF   THE   SOCIAL   ATMOSPHERE      125 

makes  one  desire  to  be  a  part  of  the  time  with  one's  peers 
or  one's  kind  in  the  strict  sense.  A  man  needs  some  associa- 
tion with  men  friends  into  which  the  wives  and  children 
do  not  enter.  A  woman  is  greatly  helped  by  some  contact 
with  other  women  apart  from  her  husband  and  children. 
In  the  same  way  the  boy  or  girl  is  helped  by  some  regular 
contact  with  a  group  of  his  or  her  owm  sex  and  age.  But 
to  be  helpful  this  special  form  of  society  must  be  kept  in  its 
place.  It  is  the  minor  rather  than  the  major  element; 
the  moment  it  becomes  the  main  form  of  association  its 
influence  involves  harm,  since  the  moral  atmosphere  it 
creates  is  incomplete  and  becomes  distorted. 

One  of  the  best  examples  of  the  good  and  evil  of  this  form 
of  segregation  is  found  in  the  great  English  schools  for 
boys.  It  is  well  know^n  how  strong  an  influence  for  good 
they  have  been.  The  boy  goes  away  from  home,  becomes 
a  member  of  a  vigorous  society  of  his  peers,  learns  self- 
dependence,  responds  to  the  moral  standards  that  prevail, 
and  under  a  wise  master  is  fitted  for  manlv  life.  Yet 
how  grave  is  the  loss  of  contact  with  the  home,  with  the 
general  human  society,  and  how  artificial  and  sometimes 
false  and  harmful  are  the  moral  standards  growing  up  in 
such  a  school.  Ennis  Richmond  has  stated  this  strikingly 
in  Through  Boyhood  to  Manhood,  p.  21 : 

"I  know  many  a  boy  who  will  take  a  bad  'hack'  on  the 
shin  (is  there  any  pain  more  thrilling  ?)  in  a  football  match 
as  though  for  him  pain  did  not  exist,  and  yet  who  would 
not  hesitate  to  make  his  whole  family  uncomfortable  in  the 
holidays  if  he  has  a  cold  or  a  headache." 

The  same  author  sums  up  the  principle  on  p.  27: 

"  An  education  which  is  evolved  from  the  laws  and  rules 
of  a  societv  which  for»centuries  has  based  these  laws  upon 


126  MORAL   EDUCATION 

the  contact  of  boys  with  boys  is  not  enough  unless  it  is 
supplemented,  governed  and  controlled  by  some  outside 
influence,  unless  this  influence  points  to  some  infinitely 
higher  and  nobler  standard  than  could  ever  be  found  in  a 
society  which  bases  the  motives  for  its  actions  on  the.  ap- 
proval of  the  members  of  that  society  itself/' 

In  our  own  country  the  most  striking  illustration  of  this 
form  of  social  segregation  is  found  in  the  boys'  (and  in 
lesser  measure  the  girls')  clubs  that  have  sprung  up  so 
widely  within  a  decade.  These  have  proved  masterly 
instruments  for  combatting  the  worst  evils  in  the  crowded 
districts  of  great  cities,  and  have  given  the  *gang'  spirit 
a  healthy  and  helpful  form  of  expression,  furnishing  as  they 
do  a  natural  outlet  for  the  restlessness  and  enthusiasm  of 
children  and  young  people,  within  a  healthy  moral  atmos- 
phere. Indeed,  the  movement  to  form  these  clubs  and  the 
influence  resulting  from  them  assume  almost  the  propor- 
tions of  a  moral  and  religious  crusade.^  To  avoid  harm- 
ful results,  however,  these  clubs  for  special  groups  must  be 
kept  in  close  relation  to  the  home  and  the  larger  human 
world.  If  they  become  substitutes  for  the  home  the  result 
is  disastrous,  since  the  specific  benefit  is  attained  for  the 
individual  at  the  expense  of  breaking  his  basal  natural 
relationships  and  dwarfing  his  power  to  give  and  to  take 
helpfully  in  relation  to  humanity.^ 

^  The  work  of  Rev.  William  Byron  Forbush,  author  of  The  Boy 
Problem,  is  one  of  the  best  ilhistrations  of  what  is  beina;  done  in  this 
field,  and  the  magazine  of  which  he  is  editor,  How  to  Help  Boys, 
quarterly,  Boston,  gives  full  information  regarding  the  movement. 

^  Compare  Stanton  Coit  in  his  suggestive  little  book  on  Neighbor- 
hood Guilds,  pp.  48-49: 

"Nor  have  I  any  less  misgivings  as  to  the  ultimate  effects  of  young 
men's  clubs  in  the  Christian  Associations  when  unconnected  with 
clubs  for  sisters  and  fathers  and  mothers.     The  boy  gets  a  wholly 


MORAL    INFLUENCE    OF   THE    SOCIAL   ATMOSPHERE      127 

^  Thus  any  measure  or  form  of  social  segregation  is  justi- 
fiable only  if  its  whole  result  is  a  stronger  moral  person- 
ality, more  helpful  to  the  whole  human  world .^  Any  limit- 
ing of  the  broadest  relationship  to  humanity,  if  tempora- 
rily necessary,  should  be  renounced  gladly  at  the  earliest 
moment  w^e  can  safely  do  so.  We  must  limit,  correct  and 
supplement  the  influence  of  Nature,  but  we  should  never 
supplant  her.  We  can  teach  the  child  democracy  only  by 
allowing  him  to  practise  it.^    Every  special  relation  he  sus- 

.  tains  to  a  group  or  an  individual  must  merge  in  the  larger  re- 
lation to  the  whole  human  world .  He  can  learn  to  deal  help- 
fully withhumanity  only  by  dealing  helpfully  with  humanity. 
Thus  there  can  be  no  greater  mistake  than  in  over 
regulation  of  child  life.  This  applies  alike  to  work  and 
play,  government,  discipline,  the  social  atmosphere.^     I 


perverted  \'iew  of  sociability,  he  soon  regards  it  as  a  relation  which 
only  men  with  men  are  capable  of ;  and  after  he  marries,  he  will  be  so 
unaccustomed  to  the  idea  of  comradeship  and  conversation  with 
women  that  when  he  craves  social  pleasures  of  an  intellectual  tvpe 
he  will  turn  away  from  home  to  the  political  club  or  even  the  public- 
house.  I  have  often  visited  the  large  gatherings  of  young  men  in  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations,  but  never  without  alarm. 
Where  are  the  sisters  and  sweethearts  and  fathers  and  mothers  of 
these  young  men?  And  why  are  these  men  drawn  off  here  by  them- 
selves evening  after  evening?  Can  there  be  a  doubt  that  such  insti- 
tutions, in  spite  of  their  good  intention,  are  hostile  to  the  social  life 
of  the  family  and  to  the  intellectual  and  moral  companionship  of  the 
sexes?" 

^  "  Suffice  it  briefly  to  remember  that  punctilious  and  constant 
supervision  is  burdensome  alike  to  the  supervisor  and  those  he 
watches  over,  and  is  apt  therefore  to  be  associated  on  both  sides  with 
deceit,  and  thrown  off  at  every  opportunity — and  also  that  the  need 
for  it  grows  with  the  degree  in  which  it  is  used,  and  that  at  last  every 
moment  of  its  intermittence  is  fraught  with  danger.  Further,  it 
prevents  children  from  knowing  and  testing  themselves,  and  learning 
a  thousand  things  which  are  not  included  in  any  pedagogic  system, 
but  can  only  be  found  by  self-search.  Finally,  for  all  these  reasons, 
the  character  which  is  formed  outside  the  will  of  its  possessor,  either 


128  MORAL    EDUCATION 

read  through  not  long  ago  one  of  the  recent  educational 
Utopias,  with  a  sense  of  increasing  depression.  It  was  all 
so  well  arranged,  every  week  of  the  year  and  hour  of  the 
day  accounted  for,  the  most  skillfully  devised  and  paternally 
kind  system  planned  to  make  all  the  children  *nice'  all 
the  time;  but  somehow  there  was  no  chance  for  humanity 
to  get  in.  No!  one  does  not  w^ant  to  visit  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  on  a  'personally  conducted  excursion.'  Better 
the  great,  irregular,  free,  rough  human  world,  with  all  the 
waste  nature  and  freedom  involve,  than  the  most  perfect 
Utopia  where  everything  is  done  from  above,  and  the 
children  are  manufactured,  instead  of  being  allowed  under 
wise  guidance  and  corrective  supervision  to  grow.  Even 
our  supervision  may  easily  meddle  too  much.  Fights, 
swimming  in  dangerous  places,  playing  marbles  'for 
keeps,'  recklessly  climbing  trees,  are  all  questionable;  and 
yet  just  such  experiences  may  cooperate  in  molding  a 
good,  sound,  healthy  manhood.^  i.-We  must  risk  something 
if  any  good  is  to  be  obtained;  wasteful  as  freedom  is, 
nothing  can  compensate  for  its  abrogation. 


remains  weak  or  distorted,  according  as  the  outlets  which  the  indi- 
vidual finds  be  many  or  few." — Herbart,  The  Science  of  Education, 
translated  by  Felkin,  pp.  97-98. 

^  Compare  Henry  A.  Shute,  The  Real  Diary  of  a  Real  Boy. 
Whether  or  not  this  little  book  is  entirely  what  it  purports  to  be, 
it  is  an  interesting  study  of  the  effect  of  vigorous,  largely  uncon- 
trolled boyhood,  involving  the  active  struggle  of  one*  with  his 
equals,  in  molding  strong  character. 


XIII 

PRINCIPLES  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  HOME  AND 

SCHOOL 

More  powerful  in  molding  character  than  the  relatively 
statical  environment  of  the  child  is  the  government  to 
which  he  is  subjected.  In  fact,  the  direct  control  of  the 
child  exercised  by  those  persons  who  have  authority  over 
him  is  the  all-pervading  force,  guiding  his  work  and  play, 
molding,  or  at  least  modifying  his  environment,  mediating 
between  him  and  the  universe  of  law.  Thus  this  dynamic 
influence  is  the  very  centre  of  the  whole  problem  of  moral 
education. .  I  wish  first  to  consider  the  principles  of  this 
control  in  those  institutions  of  which  the  child  is  a  member — 
the  home  and  the  school — and  then  to  study  the  problem  of 
personal  discipline. 

Institutions  are  less  perfect,  just  and  unvarying  than 
nature,  since  they  spring  partly  from  the  imperfect  and 
disturbing  cause  of  human  reason,  but  because  human 
reason  is  consciously  at  work  in  them  they  represent  nature 
carried  up  to  a  higher  plane  of  expression.  Institutions 
are  natural  just  in  so  far  as  they  are  truly  rational.  It  is 
difficult  to  separate  the  influence  of  institutions  from  other 
moral  forces,  since  they  have  developed  step  by  step  with 
the  evolution  of  personality.  It  would  be  impossible  for 
^any  one  of  us  to  say  what  part  of  our  tendencies  in  char- 
acter corner  from  the  institutions  under  which  we  live,  but 


130  MORAL   EDUCATION 

surely  a  little  reflection  will  show  that  the  nature  and  spirit 
of  those  institutions  has  been  woven  into  the  very  texture 
of  our  minds. 

The  supreme  institution  in  government  is  the  state;  and 
it  is  very  evident  what  different  types  of  character  tend  to 
develop  under  democracy  or  monarchy,  aristocracy  or 
tyranny.  Indeed,  the  chief  reason  for  advocating  one 
form  of  the  state  rather  than  another  is  this  result  in 
molding  the  character  of  the  citizen.  Children  are  born 
into  the  state,  and  are  indirectly  influenced  by  it  from  the 
beginning,  but  only  with  the  growth  into  young  manhood 
and  womanhood  is  its  influence  directly  brought  to  bear 
upon  them,  producing  a  conscious  reaction.  It  is  true, 
the  lost  children  fall  immediately  into  the  hands  of  the 
state,  but  even  they  have  no  consciousness  of  the  meaning 
of  organized  society;  while  for  all  normal  children,  certain 
other  institutions  mediate  between  the  child  and  the  state 
Two  of  these,  the  home  and  the  school,  are  of  supreme 
importance,  acting  upon  the  child  as  they  do  together 
throughout  the  period  ending  in  manhood.  I  wish  to 
reserve  the  influence  on  children  of  individuals  in  home 
and  school  for  consideration  in  subsequent  chapters,  and 
to  study  first  the  effect  on  moral  development  of  the  home 
and  the  school  considered  as  organic  institutions,  with 
the  aim  of  discovering  the  principles  that  should  regulate 
their  organization  and  government. 

First  let  us  recognize  that  the  moral  effect  of  an  institu- 
tion is  not  determined  by  its  material  size,  but  by  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  it  is  based;  therefore,  if  we  find  the  prin- 
ciples in  these  lesser^  institutions,  the  home  and  the  school, 

*  In  calling  the  home  and  the  school  "lesser  institutions"  I  do  not 
mean  that  they  are  less  important  than  the  state,  but  that  they  are 
smaller  units  contained  within  it. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  HOME  AND  SCHOOL    131 

to  be  the  sameias  in  the  state,  the  moral  influence  on  those 
(governed  by  the  institution  may  be  equally  important, 
et  us  compare  the  principles  in  the  state  and  in  these 
istitutions  that  most  powerfully  affect  childhood.  (1) 
The  state  is  an  organization  existing  for  certain  definite 
purposes.  Without  going  into  a  discussion  of  the  philos- 
ophy of  the  state,  we  may  say  that  one  recognized  aim  of  all 
organized  society  tending  toward  democracy,  is  to  guar- 
antee each  individual  the  greatest  possible  freedom  in 
seeking  his  own  life  and  happiness,  so  long  as  that  free- 
dom does  not  conflict  with  the  same  end  for  all  others. 

(2)  The  just  laws  of  the  state  are  those  that  are  necessary 
to  its  ends.  For  instance,  from  the  aim  just  defined  flow 
the  rational  laws  with  reference  to  property.  In  so  far  as 
these  laws  are  just  they  are  necessary  to  protect  the  free- 
dom and  activity  of  each  individual,  in  harmony  with  the 
same   freedom   and   activity   on   the   part   of  all   others. 

(3)  Free  citizenship  in  the  state  means  voluntary  and 
intelligent  obedience  to  those  laws  which  are  necessary  to 
the  ends  of  the  state,  with  a  protest  by  every  reasonable 
means  against  laws  which  are  not  necessitated  by  the  pur- 
poses for  which  the  state  exists. 

Do  not  these  three  principles  apply  fully  to  the  home 
and  the  school  ?  Each  is  an  organization  existing  for  cer- 
tain reasonable  purposes.  In  each  the  just  laws  are  those 
necessary  to  the  fulfillment  of  the  ends  for  which  the  organ- 
ization exists.  May  we  add  that  free  citizenship  in  home 
and  school  is  voluntary  and  intelligent  obedience  to  the 
laws  necessary  to  the  purposes  of  the  institution  ?  It  may 
be  said  that  children  cannot  understand  the  principles  in 
the  organization  of  these  institutions.  It  is  triie,  as  we 
shall  see,  that  there  is  growth  into  the  full  understanding 


132  MORAL    EDUCATION 

of  them;  but  can  we  not  say  that  the  ordinary  American 
child  of  six  is  as  able  to  understand  all  the  principles  in 
home  and  school  organization  as  is  the  average  voting 
citizen  the  purposes  and  laws  of  the  government  his  free 
exercise  of  citizenship  helps  to  fashion  ? 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  difficult  philosophic  dis- 
cussion in  order  to  see  the  end  and  laws  of  the  home  and 
the  school.  For  instance,  each  member  of  the  family  is 
there  to  grow  and  be  happy  and  to  help  all  the  other  mem- 
bers to  grow  and  be  happy.  To  attain  these  ends  we  must 
all  obey  the  following  simple  conditions:  (1)  Each  must 
be  clean  and  temperate.  It  is  impossible  to  live  habitualjy 
with  those  who  are  physically  or  morally  unclean;  and 
temperance  is  simply  the  positive  side  of  cleanliness,  mean- 
ing just  proportion  in  our  activities  and  in  our  relations 
to  the  things  that  serve  us.  (2)  We  must  be  cheerful  and 
courageous.  SuUenness  is  a  deadly  blight  upon  both  hap- 
piness and  helpfulness;  and  a  certain  glad  willingness  to 
strive  and  endure  is  needed  for  the  two  aims  of  the  home 
life.  (3)  Each  must  show  reasonable  truth  and  justice. 
No  group  of  people  can  carry  on  a  common  life  with- 
out depending  upon  mutual  trust  and  fairness.  (4) 
Justice  is  not  enough:  beyond  giving  each  his  due, 
there  must  be  loving  helpfulness  shown  by  each  member 
of  the  family  toward  all  the  rest.  (5)  Finally,  if  the  ends 
of  the  home  life  are  to  be  attained,  each  individual  must 
obey  that  most  fundamental  law  of  all  joyous  and  useful 
living,  earnest  work. 

These  principles  are  so  simple  as  to  be  within  the 
comprehension  of  quite  young  children,  if  not  intellectually 
at  least  practically,  yet  they  are  the  great  laws  of  human 
living.     Fortunately,  the  basis  of  the  moral  life  is  not  some 


^^^^     Of  ..^y 


PRIXXIPLES  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  H?5^W«-iWfrSCH00L    133 

rare,  exotic  element  possible  only  to  a  few,  but  is  made 
of  just  these  simple,  universal  virtues,  if  difficult  of  com- 
plete attainment,  nevertheless  open  to  the  striving  of  all. 

As  the  home  is  the  more  generic  institution,  the  state- 
ment of  its  end  and  laws  is  inclusive  for  the  school  as  well. 
Children  are  in  the  school,  as  in  the  home, Co  grow  and  be 
happy  and  help  others  to  grow  and  be  happy;  and  the 
same  simple  conditions  lead  to  the  attainment  of  the  aim. 
It  is  necessary  that  the  children  should  be  clean,  just, 
•loving  in  school  as  at  home.  Yet  the  school  has  its  own 
specific  function  in  relation  to  the  general  aim,  and  par- 
ticular laws  flowing  from  that  function.  Here  as  well  we 
need  not  go  into  difficult  pedagogical  discussion.  With- 
out considering  the  relative  value  of  the  different  formulas 
proposed  to  define  the  end  of  the  school,  we  may  say  that 
children  go  to  school  to  learn  and  help  their  neighbors 
learn.  To  attain  this  aim  the  children  must  come  to 
school  (1)  promptly  and  (2)  regularly;  they  must  be  (3) 
reasonably  quiet  and  orderly;  they  must  give  (4)  careful 
attention,  and  (5)  work  earnestly  at  the  school  tasks. ^ 

These  conditions  upon  which  the  aim  of  the  school  di- 
rectly depends  are  as  simple  as  the  more  generic  laws  of 
the  home,  yet  how  important  they  are.  Promptness  is  the 
least  of  them;  but  in  any  community,  for  every  public 
meeting  during  one  year  to  begin  on  time  would  mean  a 
great  moral  revolution.  Suppose  all  the  people  in  a  cer- 
tain town  were  to  become  prompt  and  regular  in  business 


^  These  principles  are  so  obvious  that  they  have  been  frequently 
stated  in  siighth^  different  form.  Compare  Dr.  Harris  on  The 
Relation  o^ School  Discipline  to  Moral  Education,  pp.  58-72,  in  the 
Third  Year  Book  of  the  National  Herbart  Society.  Compare  also 
the  report  on  Moral  Education  in  Schools  by  the  Committee  of 
the  National  Council  of  Ed-jcat-on,  W.  A,  Mowry,  chairman. 


134  MORAL   EDUCATION 

and  social  life,  reasonably  quiet  and  orderly,  and  earnestly 
attentive  to  their  work :  would  not  the  price  of  land  double 
in  the  neighborhood  and  people  move  near  to  be  as  close 
as  possible  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven?  Let  me  repeat: 
life  is  not  made  of  rare,  out-of-the-way  elements;  and  as 
fresh  air,  sunshine  and  simple  food  give  the  life  of  the  body, 
so  the  finest  character  is  molded  of  the  simplest  virtues. 

If  therefore  even  quite  young  children  can  be  brought  to 
understand  the  aims  and  necessary  laws  of  the  home  and 
the  school,  does  not  every  argument  for  democracy  in  the 
state  apply  with  multiplied  force  to  the  form  of  government 
in  these  lesser  institutions  ?  What  is  the  true  justification 
of  democracy  in  the  state  ?  Surely  not  immediate  results 
in  good  government.  Democracy  is,  for  a  large  part  of  its 
history  at  least,  one  of  the  most  wasteful  forms  of  govern- 
ment. It  cultivates  demagoguery  and  corruption,  puts 
inefficient  leaders  into  office,  is  wasteful  of  human  energy 
and  wealth.  Yet  in  spite  of  that  we  believe  in  democ- 
racy. Why?  Because  we  believe  that  only  under  free 
institutions  is  it  possible  to  build  up  the  most  earnest, 
free  and  intelligent  type  of  manhood  and  womanhood. 
In  other  words,  the  one  justification  of  democracy  is  the 
education  of  its  citizens;  and  we  submit  to  the  temporary 
waste  and  evil  for  the  sake  of  that  education.  If  then 
we  dare  to  trust  democracy  in  the  state,  is  it  not  our  duty 
to  apply  its  principles  to  the  government  of  children  in 
the  home  and  the  school,  where  the  whole  aim  is  educa- 
tion ? 

In  the  state  each  form  of  government  has  its  unique 
result  in  the  character  of  its  subjects.  An  arbitrary 
tyranny,  for  instance,  tends  to  make  two  types  of  citizens, 
slaves  and  nihilists.     I  do  not  mean  that  all  subjects  of  a 


PRINCIPLES  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  HOME  AND  SCHOOL     135 

tyranny  become  one  or  the  other,  for  powerful  forces 
aside  from  the  government  check  and  counteract  its  effect; 
but  in  so  far  as  the  state  does  mold  its  citizens,  a  tyrannical 
government  tends  to  build  the  two  types  of  character  men- 
V  tioned.  The  weak  people,  those  who  like  to  respond  to 
whatever  authority  happens  to  be  present,  become  blindly 
submissive,  more  and  more,  to  the  arbitrary  tyranny. 
The  strong  people,  on  the  other  hand,  those  who  tend  to 
question  authority  and  who  demand  a  reason  for  their 
obedience,  become  more  and  more  blindly  reactionary 
against  the  arbitrary  rule  that  is  over  them.  Now  neither 
slaves  nor  nihilists  are  free  citizens,  so  that  the  influence  of  a 
blind  tyranny  in  the  state  is  morally  destructive  both  ways. 
The  same  effect  follows  from  a  similar  type  of  govern- 
ment in  the  home  and  the  school,  only  there  the  result  is 
far  greater,  because  less  counteracted  by  other  forces. 
An  autocratic  rule  tends  to  mold  the  children  into  the  same 
two,  undesirable  types  of  character.  The  weak  children 
become  wholly  submissive  to  the  will  of  the  teacher  or 
parent,  responding  to  it  without  reason,  merely  because 
it  happens  to  be  present.  Surely  such  children  are  not 
being  prepared  for  helpful  living  in  our  world.  Rather 
they  become  the  most  dangerous  element  in  the  com- 
munity,— well-meaning,  but  so  entirely  submissive  to  what- 
ever powerful  influence  plays  upon  them  that  they  are 
easily  molded  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  demagogue.^ 

^  "The  child  that  seems  good  outwardly  often  is  not  good  inwardly, 
i.e.,  does  not  desire  the  good  spontaneously,  or  from  love,  respect, 
and  appreciation;  similarly,  the  outv/ardly  rough,  stubborn,  self- 
willed  child  that  seems  outwardly  not  good,  frequently  is  filled  with 
the  liveliest,  most  eager,  strongest  desire  for  spontaneous  goodness  in 
his  actions;  and  the  apparently  inattentive  boy  frequently  follows 
a  certain  fixed  line  of  thought  that  withholds  his  attention  from  all 
external  things." — Froebel,  The  Education  0}  Man,  translated  by 
Kallmann,  pp.  6-7t 


136  MORAL   EDUCATION 

On  the  other  hand,  the  strong  children,  who  resent  any- 
blind  obedience,  who  have  in  them  the  making  of  the  most 
effective  men  and  women,  react  vigorously  against  an 
autocratic  control.  They  may  be  quite  submissive,  appa- 
rently, while  the  adult's  authority  is  immediately  over 
them,  but  let  the  parent  go  away  for  a  day,  or  the  teacher 
leave  the  room,  and  like  a  rubber  ball  they  rebound,  and 
pride  themselves  upon  any  successfully  disobedient  act. 
Neither  are  these  children  fitted  to  live  in  the  world  we 
know,  for  their  blind  reaction  against  all  control  harms 
both  society  and  themselves,  until  they  are  taught,  through 
suffering,  the  necessity  and  meaning  of  rational  obedience. 

It  is  this  second  group  who  are  wrongly  called  *bad' 
children.  They  are  no  more  bad  than  the  weakly  sub- 
missive are  good.  A  really  bad  child  is  the  hardened 
criminal,  so  dwarfed  and  distorted  by  evil  heredity,  en- 
vironment and  experience  that  he  has  come  to  hate  the 
good  and  love  the  evil,  so  that  our  moral  appeals  seem  lost 
upon  him.  Such  children  do  appear,  but  they  are  few 
indeed  in  number;  while  the  children  usually  called  bad 
are  simply  strong  individuals  who  have  been  misdirected, 
and  have  come  to  feel  that  any  successful  opposition  to 
authority  or  escape  from  it  is  action  of  real  manliness. 
Must  we  not  add  that  if  v/e  have  made  the  problem  one 
of  the  struggle  of  our  will  and  intellect  Avith  the  child's, 
and  he  conquers,  this  is  so  far  an  evidence  in  him  of 
strength  and  therefore  meritorious  ?  The  pity  of  it  is  that 
we  have  called  forth  the  strength  along  a  wholly  wrong  line, 
which  abrogates  moral  relationships,  confuses  moral  dis- 
tinctions and  ends  in  disaster. 

What  these  misdirected  children  need  is  not  suppression, 
a  powerful  assertion  of  our  authority  that  reduces  their  wills 


PRINCIPLES  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  HOME  AND  SCHOOL    137 

to  submission,  but  to  be  brought  into  line  with  reasonable 
ends.  Our  whole  effort  should  be  to  win  the  child's 
cooperation  instead  of  his  enmity.  His  intelligence  needs, 
not  repression,  but  to  be  led  to  see  the  reasons  for  obedience. 
His  will  should  be,  not  broken,  but  enlightened. 

With  the  evil  effects  of  tyranny  let  us  contrast  the  prac- 
tical working  of  democracy  in  home  and  school  govern- 
ment. The  object  of  democracy  is  exactly  the  opposite 
of  tyranny.  The  arbitrary  authority  aims  to  produce  un- 
questioning obedience ;  the  aim  of  democracy  is  to  develop 
free  and  intelligent  response  to  the  best,  on  the  part  of  each 
individual.  Thus  in  any  institution  the  object  of  democ- 
racy is  moral,  never  merely  economic.  Let  me  illustrate 
with  a  particular  question  of  school  government:  every 
teacher  has  trouble  with  tardiness;  how  should  he  deal 
with  the  problem?  It  is  easily  possible  for  a  forceful 
teacher  so  to  dominate  the  school  as  to  frighten  the  chil- 
dren into  conformity  with  his  will  and  thus  eliminate  most 
of  the  tardiness.  But  what  is  the  result  ?  Well,  the  chil- 
dren get  to  school  on  time,  and  that  is  of  economic  value. 
Moreover  there  may  be  some  moral  worth  in  the  habit  of 
promptness  even  when  it  is  irrational  and  inspired  by  fear.^ 
We  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter  how  little  such  habits  are 
worth;  and  beyond  this  there  is  no  moral  value  in  such 
enforced  conformity.     Suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  the 

^"Obedience  which  is  the  result  of  fear,  whether  of  natural 
penalties  or  arbitrary  punishments  inflicted  by  parents  or  others  in 
authority,  produces  a  servile  habit  of  mind  and  is  consistent  with 
inward  rebellion  against  the  law  which  must  be  outwardly  submitted 
to.  But  obedience  which  springs  from  trust  and  reverence,  from 
belief  in  the  child  that  the  parent  or  his  representative  is  wiser  and 
better  than  himself,  and  which  is,  therefore,  a  willing  submission,  is 
the  root  of  true  morality ;  the  recognition  of  a  higher  law  which  we 
oiight  to  obey." — Emily  A.  E.  Shirreff,  Moral  Training,  p.  14. 


138  MORAL   EDUCATION 

children  are  taken  into  the  teacher's  confidence  and 
brought  to  see  the  need  of  getting  to  school  on  time  if  they 
are  to  learn  and  help  their  neighbors  learn:  every  act  of 
obedience  that  is  given  voluntarily  because  the  end  is 
recognized  and  willed  is  a  step  forward  in  the  development 
of  independent  moral  character.  Here  is  a  child  who  must 
help  hi'^  mother  wash  and  wipe  the  dishes  before  he  can 
come  to  school.  If  he  does  his  work  as  quickly  as  possible 
and  runs  partway  to  school,  because  he  sees  it  is  necessary 
to  the  good  work  of  the  school  and  because  he  desires  to 
cooperate  in  seeking  the  end  that  is  right,  his  action  is 
worth  morally  what  no  blind  habit  can  ever  mean.  He  is 
learning,  not  to  respond  to  the  accident  of  authority,  but 
to  take  the  moral  initiative  and  choose  and  affirm  freely 
what  is  best  for  him  and  for  all. 

Consider  the  problem  of  whispering,  with  which  all 
teachers  struggle.  It  is  obviously  possible  for  a  teacher 
*with  a  strong  personality'  to  dominate  a  school-room 
and  suppress  w^hispering.  There  are  rooms  presided 
over  by  'good  disciplinarians'  where  the  children  are 
frightened  into  such  an  abject  obedience  that  they  actually 
do  not  breathe  and  move  around  enough  for  their  physical 
health.  Here  again  we  have  an  economic  result — good 
order — and  a  slight  moral  good,  often  accompanied  with  dis- 
tinct moral  and  physical  harm. 

Why  should  not  the  child  whisper?  He  needs  a  knife 
to  sharpen  his  lead  pencil,  or  he  has  failed  to  hear  the 
announcement  of  the  lesson.  There  is  a  good  reason  why 
he  should  not:  he  should  have  paid  attention  when  the 
lesson  was  given;  and  if  the  children  generally  whisper 
when  they  think  it  necessary,  the  school  quickly  becomes 
so  disorderly  that  good  work  cannot  be  done.     Let  the 


PRINCIPLES  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  HOME  AND  SCHOOL    139 

children  see  and  state  this  principle  for  themselves;  win  as 
much  support  as  possible  to  the  end  in  view;  and  then  if 
the  children  are  reasonably  quiet,  refraining  sometimes 
from  whispering  when  they  would  like  to,  they  are  growing 
in  self-control  and  free  obedience  to  reasonable  law,  and 
so  the  great  end  of  moral  education  is  being  attained. 

It  is  wonderful  how  the  teacher's  hands  are  upheld  by 
such  a  spirit  in  the  school  when  it  comes  to  dealing  with 
the  refractory  children  who  cannot  be  won  to  adhesion  to 
the  aim  and  free  conformity  to  the  conditions  that  lead  to  it. 
Public  opinion  is  as  powerful  among  children  as  among 
adults;  and  the  children  themselves  will  bring  the  largest 
possible  influence  to  bear  upon  the  reactionary  individual 
when  democracy  is  the  principle  of  the  government. 

In  general  we  may  say  that  it  is  always  better  to  secure 
adhesion  to  a  principle  without  formulating  it  into  a  rule, 
and  the  rule  should  be  given  only  where  we  have  failed 
to  solve  the  problem  on  the  higher  plane.  ^     The  children 

^  "  I  have  seen  Parents  so  heap  Rules  on  their  Children,  that  it  was 
impossible  for  the  poor  little  Ones  to  remember  a  tenth  Part  of 
them,  much  less  to  observe  them.  However,  they  were  either  by 
Words  or  Blows  corrected  for  the  Breach  of  those  multiply' d  and 
often  very  impertinent  Precepts.  Whence  it  naturally  follow'd  that 
the  Children  minded  not  what  was  said  to  them,  when  it  was  evident 
to  them  that  no  Attention  they  were  capable  of  was  sufficient  to  pre- 
serve them  from  Transgression,  and  the  Rebukes  which  follow'd  it. 

Let  therefore  your  Rules  to  your  Son  be  as  few  as  possible,  and 
rather  fewer  than  more  than  seem  absolutely  necessary.  For  if  you 
burden  him  with  many  Rules,  one  of  these  two  Things  must  neces- 
sarily follow;  that  either  he  must  be  very  often  punish'd,  which  will 
be  of  ill  Consequence,  by  making  Punishment  too  frequent  and 
familiar;  or  else  you  must  let  the  Transgressions  of  some  of  your 
Rules  go  unpunish'd,  whereby  they  will  of  course  grow  contemptible, 
and  your  Authority  become  cheap  to  him.  Make  but  few  Laws,  but 
see  they  be  well  observ'd  when  once  made.  Few  Years  require  but 
few  Laws,  and  as  his  Age  increases,  when  one  Rule  is  by  Practice 
well  establish'd,youmay  add  another." — Locke,  Some  Thoitghts Con- 
cerning Education,  edited  by  Quick,  pp.  38-39. 


140  MORAL   EDUCATION 

themselves  can  understand  this.  As  long  as  the  room  is 
reasonably  orderly  there  need  be  no  rule  about  whispering. 
Persistent  disorder  may  necessitate  the  formulation  of  a 
specific  rule,  and  if  so,  it  is  well  that  the  children  should 
cooperate  in  its  formulation. 

The  problem  has  been  worked  out  in  phases  of  modern 
university  discipline.  In  the  old-time  college  it  was 
sought  to  bring  the  student  under  the  control  of  rigid 
authority.  Rules  affecting  all  the  details  of  his  life  were 
formulated  and  even  posted  on  the  wall  of  his  room,  thus 
directly  challenging  his  disobedience.  Just  in  so  far  as 
these  rules  seemed  to  the  student  an  arbitrary  expression 
of  the  power  of  his  superiors,  he  naturally  tried  to  get 
around  them.  Hence  the  tradition  of  college  pranks 
which  fills  the  old-time  stories  of  school  life.  Today,  uni- 
versity students  are  expected  to  be  men  and  women  with  a 
reasonable  knowledge  of  what  is  required  in  a  moral 
society.  Opportunities  for  disobedience  are  not  suggested 
to  them  by  the  formulation  of  detailed  restrictions.  If 
they  break  the  known  laws  of  society,  the  ordinary  system 
of  justice  must  take  charge  of  them  as  of  other  criminals, 
for  the  rest  they  are  thrown  largely  upon  their  own  per- 
sonal honor  and  reason.  The  result  is,  it  becomes  very 
melancholy  to  steal  pies  from  the  dormitory  or  paint 
the  professor's  horse.  No  one  pays  any  attention  to  you 
or  makes  a  hero  of  you  as  long  as  the  prank  is  childish, 
and  when  it  becomes  criminal  you  find  yourself  in  the 
disgrace  that  attaches  to  all  harmful  social  offenses. 
Under  this  regime  even  'class  rushes'  seem  more  and  more 
foolish  to  intelligent  students,  and  tend  to  disappear,  in 
spite  of  the  century-long  tradition  that  supports  them. 

Thus  the  question  of  the  organization  and  government  of 


PRINCIPLES  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  HOME  AND  SCHOOL    141 

these  lesser  institutions,  the  home  and  the  school,  is  always 
a  moral  problem,  never  merely  an  economic  one.  It  is 
amazing  how  this  fact  is  ignored  in  current  education. 
The  parent's  government  is  often  dictated  by  the  interest 
of  his  own  ease  and  comfort,  the  teacher's  by  the  desire 
to  get  the  work  of  the  school  done,  or  worse,  to  make  a 
good  showing  when  the  principal  or  visitor  enters,  and  so 
get  the  questionable  reputation  of  being  a  *good  disciplin- 
arian.'^ Yet,  like  all  other  government, that  of  the  home 
and  the  school  will  stamp  itself  indelibly  on  the  character 
of  the  children  and  mold  them  in  accordance  with  its  prin- 
ciples; and  far  more  in  the  home  and  the  school  than  in 
the  state,  not  only  because  children  are  so  plastic,  but 
because  these  institutions  fill  so  much  larger  a  place  in 
the  life  of  the  child  than  the  state  does  in  that  of  the  adult 
citizen.  Unless  we  can  recall  vividly  our  own  early  life, 
it  is  difficult  to  realize  how  completely  the  child  is  ab- 
sorbed in  the  little  world  of  these  lesser  institutions. 
Therefore  the  reason  for  insisting  on  democracy  as  the 
principle  of  government  in  home  and  school  is  in  no  degree 
its  effect  in  ease,  comfort  or  economy,  but  the  moral  good 
of  the  children. 


^  "It  is,  therefore,  Ao  paradox  to  say,  that  order  and  silence  and 
regularity  may  be  maintained,  in  a  school,  by  a  course  of  discipline, 
which,  while  it  seems  to  make  a  good  school,  shall,  in  reality,  be  a 
skillfully  arranged  process  for  making  bad  men." — Horace  Mann, 
On  School  Punishments,  in  Life  and  Works  of  Horace  Mann,  vol. 
II,  p.  362. 


XIV 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  APPLICATION  OF  DEMOC- 
RACY IN  HOME  AND  SCHOOL 
GOVERNMENT 

We  have  seen  that  the  aim  of  all  government  in  home 
and  school  is  the  moral  development  of  the  children,  and 
that  therefore  it  is  our  duty  to  base  our  control  of  children 
as  far  as  possible  on  the  principles  of  democracy,  to  foster 
the  free,  self-directing  type  of  character.  This  does 
not  mean,  however,  that  complete  democracy  should  be 
introduced  at  one  point.  That  has  not  been  possible  in 
the  history  of  the  race  and  cannot  be  attempted  without 
danger  in  the  life  of  the  individual.  Historically  we  can 
trace  the  development  of  organized  society  from  simple 
patriarchal  rule,  through  all  forms  of  monarchy,  oligarchy 
and  aristocracy,  with  the  perversions  represented  by 
tyranny  and  mob-rule,  toward  a  constitutional  monarchy 
that  in  turn  gives  way  to  some  form  of  democracy.  The 
process  has  been  a  long  and  slow  one,  and  even  today 
there  are  but  few  races  capable  of  living  within  the  forms 
of  political  democracy  with  reasonable  safety ;  and  among 
the  most  advanced  of  these  how  imperfectly  the  principles 
of  democracy  are  carried  out  in  practice.  Where  groups 
of  the  population  are  quite  unfit  for  self-government,  even 
though  the  political  forms  be  democratic  they  break  down 
in  reality,  and  another  type  of  government  supervenes; — 


DEMOCRACY  IN    HOME   AND   SCHOOL   GOVERNMENT     143 

as  monarchy,  in  the  case  of  the  'boss'  governing  indus- 
trially as  well  as  politically  a  mass  of  ignorant  henchmen, 
or  oligarchy,  as  in  certain  southern  portions  of  the  United 
States,  where  the  white  population,  though  distinctly  a 
minority,  has  succeeded  in  concentrating  all  political 
power  in  its  hands.  The  true  principle  of  democracy  in 
the  state  is,  not  to  establish  offhand  a  certain  political 
system  we  theoretically  hold  to  be  highest,  but  just  so 
far  as  is  consistent  with  public  safety  and  progress  to  give 
every  citizen  the  largest  possible  freedom  and  self-control, 
industrially,  socially  and  politically.  We  can  afford  to 
err  on  the  side  of  freedom,  since  responsibility,  even  when 
partly  misused,  educates  as  can  nothing  else.  The  real 
difference  between  democracy  and  other  forms  of  organiz- 
ing society  is  that  they  seek  to  further  the  interest  and 
power  of  a  class,  a  group  or  an  individual,  while  democ- 
racy aims  at  the  best  life,  freest  initiative  and  largest 
self -direction  for  all. 

As  democracy  is  a  process  and  not  a  statical  fact  in  the 
state,  so  should  it  be  in  the  home  and  the  school.  Other 
forms  of  government  in  these  institutions  aim  at  the  interest, 
ease  or  authority  of  parents  and  teachers,  democracy  aims 
at  the  best  life,  freest  initiative  and  largest  self-direction  for 
each  child.  To  attempt  the  introduction  of  a  certain  type 
of  democracy  at  a  single  stroke  in  home  or  school  is  as 
dangerous  as  the  similar  experiment  in  the  state.  The 
very  young  child  is  not  beyond  the  patriarchal  stage,  and 
from  that  point  to  complete  personal  freedom  on  the  basis 
of  wisdom  and  self-control,  the  form  of  government  must 
vary  in  principle  for  the  individual  as  historically  for  the 
race. 

If  this  is  recognized  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  those 


144  MORAL   EDUCATION 

experiments  which  seek  to  reorganize  the  school-room  in 
imitation  of  a  city  or  state  government  do  not  form  the 
main  application  of  democracy  to  the  school.  Some 
admirable  work  has  been  done  in  this  direction  through  the 
''School  City"  planned  and  carried  out  by  Wilson  L. 
Gill.^  In  certain  schools  the  discipline  has  been  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  pupils,  they  have  elected  officers,  pun- 
ished offenders,  and  carried  out  the  main  legal,  judicial 
and  legislative  functions  of  the  state.  It  is  needless  to 
point  out  how  very  valuable  is  the  direct  instruction  in  the 
functions  and  duties  of  citizenship  that  results  from  thus 
practising  them.  For  the  older  pupils,  in  advanced  gram- 
mar and  high  school  grades,  this  type  of  organization  may 
justify  itself  for  a  time  on  the  ground  of  the  instruction  in 
citizenship  alone.  Moreover,  all  the  children  undoubtedly 
receive  some  moral  training  from  such  a  system.  Certain 
of  the  more  difficult  cases  can  be  dealt  with  successfully 
on  this  plan.  I  need  only  point  to  the  splendid  record  of 
the  George  Junior  Republic  to  show  how,  under  an  in- 
spired man,  such  a  plan  can  be  carried  out  with  wonderful 
results  for  the  children  who  are  in  a  measure  social  out- 
casts.^ 

*  See  an  article  on  Self  Government  in  Schools  in  The  Literary 
Digest  of  August  8,  1903,  re\'iewing  the  work  done  under  Mr.  Gill's 
leadership. 

^  Mr.  F.  W.  Richardson,  of  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  one  of  the  trustees 
of  the  George  Junior  Republic,  has  furnished  me  the  following  data: 
Of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  '  citizens '  who  had  gone  out  from 
the  Republic  up  to  November  1902,  only  fourteen  are  regarded  as 
unsuccessful.  The  other  one  hundred  and  fifty  have  entered  society 
as  good  citizens  and  give  promise  of  remaining  so.  Compare  these 
figures  with  the  results  of  a  good  high  school,  dealing  with  the  best 
material  of  human  nature,  and  the  wonderful  success  of  the  Republic 
is  evident.  The  Annual  Reports  and  other  pamphlets  published  by 
the  George  Junior  Republic  (Freeville,  N.  Y.)  give  full  information 
concerning  this  most  instructive  educational  experiment. 


DEMOCRACY   IN   HOME   AND   SCHOOL   GOVERNMENT     145 

It  is  to  be  questioned,  however,  whether  such  a  method 
of  organization  is  to  be  advocated  as  the  wisest  plan  of 
discipKne  generally  with  reference  to  the  direct  results  in 
moral  culture.  The  scheme  stands  somewhat  aside  from 
the  immediate  problem  of  moral  education  and  demands 
a  great  deal  of  time  in  proportion  to  the  results  attained 
in  character.  Any  one  who  has  dealt  with  young  children 
knov/s  how  slight  and  how  slow  in  developing  is  their  con- 
ception of  law;  and  it  may  be  questioned  whether,  for  the 
younger  children,  the  measure  of  guidance  and  instruction 
from  above  they  would  require  in  order  to  carry  out  the 
scheme  would  not  mean  its  practical  emasculation.^ 

Valuable  as  the  experiment  of  the  school  republic  has 
proved  itself  to  be  in  application  to  special  situations,  the 
general  problem  of  government  in  home  and  school  is  to 
introduce  democracy  progressively,  as  fast  as  the  children 
can  respond  to  it.  In  the  beginning  it  is  the  personal  will 
of  the  adult  that  must  rule:  first  blind  obedience,  then 
rational  and  free  obedience  as  fast  as  possible.  It  is  as 
much  an  error  not  to  demand  the  unreasoning  response  to 
authority  before  reason  is  possible,  as  to  repress  the  rational 
attitude  when  it  awakens.  Very  young  children  obey  us, 
if  at  all,  largely  from  emotional  causes.  They  love, 
respect  or  (sadly  enough)  fear  us,  and  therefore  respond, 
without  seeing  its  reason,  to  the  personal  will  that  is  over 
them.  Respond  they  should,  nevertheless;  for  to  leave 
little  children  quite  uncontrolled,  as  so  many  American 
parents  do,  is  not  only  to  multiply  thevdifhculty  in  the  prob- 
lem of  moral  education,  but  to  render  the  child  himself 


^  See  the  two  suggestive  studies  on  Children's  Attitude  Toward 
Law  by  Estelle  M.  Darrah,  in  Studies  in  Education,  edited  by 
Earl  Barnes,  vol,  I,  pp.  213-216,  254-258. 


146  MORAL   EDUCATION 

most  unhappy.  Little  children  are  never  so  gladly  at 
peace  as  when  they  are  quietly  and  firmly  held  day  after 
day  to  what  is  best  for  them ;  and  never  so  restless  and  dis- 
satisfied as  when  they  are  left  quite  to  their  own  devices, 
not  knowing  what  to  devise.  Thus  from  the  beginning  of 
the  child's  life  and  during  its  earliest  years  the  parent 
should  exercise  a  quiet,  gentle,  patient,  but  insistent 
authority,  demanding  only  what  is  reasonable,  but  demand- 
ing it  unvaryingly.^ 

Very  early,  however,  comes  the  child's  questioning  of 
authority.  At  the  age  of  five  or  six  he  is  already  beginning 
to  ask  why  he  should  obey.^  Sometimes  this  questioning 
comes  with  a  sudden  flood,  at  other  times  reason  awakens 
very  gradually.  How  shall  we  treat  the  child's  question 
when  it  comes?  In  so  far  as  it  is  merely  impudence, 
obviously  it  should  be  suppressed.  We  dolour  children 
no  kindness  to  let  them  grow  up  impudent;  for  the  world 
will  not  tolerate  their  impudence,  and  it  is  a  grave 
harm  to  children  to  let  them  develop  a  fault  which  will 
bring  painful  experiences.  Much  of  the  questioning, 
however,  is  not  impudence  but  expresses  a  real  desire 
to  know.     Is  it  wise  to  suppress  this?     Would  not  sup- 

^"A  child  must  at  first  rest  in  authority;  his  very  preservation 
depends  upon  it;  and  if  he  is  well  trained,  he  comes  to  feel  the  satis- 
faction of  strong  and  secure  support.  A  dogma  in  fields  where  he 
does  not  know — and  there  are  few  fields  which  he  does  know — is  as 
restful  to  his  eager,  searching  mind  as  his  father's  strong  arms  are 
to  his  body." — Earl  Barnes,  The  Child  as  a  Social  Factor,  in 
Studies  in  Education,  vol.  I,  pp.  355-356. 

^  "It  will  perhaps  be  wonder'd,thatI  mention  Reasoning  with  Chil- 
dren ;  and  yet  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  true  Way  of  dealing  with 
them.  They  understand  it  as  early  as  they  do  Language ;  and,  if 
I  misobserve  not,  they  love  to  be  treated  as  rational  Creatures,  sooner 
than  is  imagin'd.  'Tis  a  Pride  should  be  cherish'd  in  them,  and,  as 
much  as  can  be,  made  the  greatest  Instrument  to  turn  them  by." — 
Locke,  Some  Thoughts  concerning  Education,  edited  by  Quick,  p.  60. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  HOME  AND   SCHOOL   GOVERNMENT     147 

pression  mean  choking  the  nascent  reason  that  is  so  essen- 
tial to  wise  Uving  ?  The  form  of  education  that  sought  to 
*  break  the  child's  will'  strove  also  to  check  the  develop- 
ment of  his  reason,  thus  struggling  to  continue  the  type  of 
obedience  that  is  mere  blind  response  to  authority.^  Yet 
surely  we  need  forceful  will  for  the  work  of  life,  only  it  must 
be  balanced  by  clear  reason,  or  it  results  in  obstinacy. 
Similarly,  we  need  an  ability  to  reason  clearly  and  discrim- 
inatingly, but  it  must  be  balanced  by  a  vigorous  power  of 
action,  or  it  loses  its  connection  with  life  and  dissipates  in 
mere  speculation.  Thus  we  should  welcome  the  serious 
questioning  of  authority  and  the  grounds  of  obedience, 
just  as  every  wise  teacher  welcomes  the  similar  questioning 
in  reference  to  the  facts  and  laws  of  nature.  In  either  case 
the  child's  awakening  is  our  educational  opportunity. 

Our  problem  is,  therefore,  to  transform  the  obedience 
to  personal  authority  into  a  free  and  intelligent  response  to 
law  just  as  rapidly  and  naturally  as  possible.  What,  after 
all,  is  the  ultimate  ground  for  parental  authority  over  little 
children?  Is  it  not  that  we  mediate  between  the  child 
and  the  universe  of  law,  holding  him  to  conformity  with 
the  latter  for  his  best  good  ?  If  so,  the  more  the  mediating 
authority  is  able  to  withdraw,  as  the  child  comes  to  a 
conscious  recognition  of  law,  the  better. 

Thus  the  two  forms  of  obedience  have  very  different 


^  "Those  who  grow  up  merely  passive,  as  obedient  children,  have 
no  character  when  they  are  released  from  super\dsion.  They  give 
themselves  up  to  their  hidden  longings  and  to  circumstances,  now 
when  no  one  has  any  longer  power  over  them,  or  when  any  power, 
which  can  still  perhaps  be  exercised,  affects  them  in  but  a  crooked 
manner,  and  must  either  drive  them  off  at  a  tangent  or  crush  them 
altogether.  Unfortunately,  every  one"  can  relate  sad  experiences 
enough  of  this  kind." — Herbart,  The  Science  of  E'dwcaiion,  translated 
by  Felkin,  p.  219. 


148  MORAL   EDUCATION 

moral  values.  The  earlier  unreasoning  response  to  au- 
thority, on  emotional  grounds,  is  of  value  chiefly  as  form- 
ing habits  of  obedience  to  what  is  best.  From  Aristotle^ 
to  Professor  James^  the  most  acute  philosophers  and  wisest 
teachers  have  insisted  upon  the  great  moral  value  of  good 
habits,  sometimes  going  so  far  as  to  identify  morality  with 
them.  Therefore  we  need  not  take  time  to  show  the  im- 
portance of  this  element  in  the  moral  life.  Regular  habits 
of  right  action  established  in  the  little  child,  before  he 
becomes  conscious  of  the  grounds  and  aims  of  his  conduct, 
are  of  great  value.  Indeed,  if  a  child  groAVS  up  to  be  seven 
or  eight  years  old  without  forming  any  such  habits  of 
obedience  to  the  right,  the  loss  is  almost  irretrievable. 

^  "  Virtue  or  excellence  being  twofold,  partly  intellectual  and  partly- 
moral,  intellectual  virtue  is  both  originated  and  fostered  mainly  by 
teaching;  it  therefore  demands  experience  and  time.  Moral  virtue 
on  the  other  hand  is.the  outcome  of  habit,  and  accordingly  its  name 
is  derived  by  a  shght  deflexion  from  habit." — Aristotle,  Nico- 
machean  Etfiics,  translated  by  J.  E.  C.  Welldon,  p.  34.  The  Mac- 
millan  Co.,  New  York,  1892. 

2  "Habit  is  thus  the  enormous  fly-wheel  of  society, its  most  precious 
conservative  agent.  It  alone  is  what  keeps  us  all  within  the  bounds 
of  ordinance,  and  saves  the  children  of  fortune  from  the  envious  up- 
risings of  the  poor.  It  alone  prevents  the  hardest  and  most  repulsive 
walks  of  life  from  being  deserted  by  those  brought  up  to  tread 
therein.  It  keeps  the  fisherman  and  the  deck-hand  at  sea  tlirough 
the  winter;  it  holds  the  miner  in  his  darkness,  and  nails  the  country- 
man to  his  log-cabin  and  his  lonely  farm  through  all  the  months  of 
snow ;  it  protects  us  from  invasion  by  the  natives  of  the  desert  and 
the  frozen  zone.  It  dooms  us  all  to  fight  out  the  battle  of  life  upon 
the  lines  of  our  nurture  or  our  early  choice,  and  to  make  the  best  of  a 
pursuit  that  disagrees,  because  there  is  no  other  for  which  we  are 
fitted,  and  it  is  too  late  to  begin  again." — William  James,  The  Prin- 
ciples  of  Psychology,  vol.  I,  p.  121.  Compare  also  the  same  chapter, 
p.  127: 

"The  hell  to  be  endured  hereafter,  of  which  theology  tells,  is  no 
worse  than  the  hell  we  make  for  ourselves  in  this  world  by  habitually 
fashioning  our  characters  in  the  wrong  way.  Could  the  young  but 
realize  how  soon  they  will  become  mere  walking  bundles  of  habits, 
they  would  give  more  heed  to  their  conduct  while  in  the  plastic  state. 
We  are  spinning  our  own  fates,  good  or  evil,  and  never  to  be  undone." 


DEMOCRACY  IN  HOME   AND   SCHOOL   GOVERNMENT      149 

Let  it  be  noted,  however,  that  we  can  estabHsh  such  habits 
lastingly  only  with  some  cooperation  of  the  child's  will 
and  desire.  If  a  child  is  forced  repeatedly  to  an  action  he 
resents,  it  is  true  a  path  is  established  and  the  action  be- 
comes easy  to  him;  but  if  every  time  he  has  merely  obeyed 
a  superior  force,  the  moment  the  compulsion  is  withdrawn 
his  opposite  desire  tends  to  prevent  his  traveling  the  path 
we  have  made  easy  for  him ;  and  what  we  supposed  was  a 
fixed  habit  may  disintegrate  in  an  amazingly  short  time. 
I  do  not  mean  that  compulsion  is  not  necessary;  it  is  often 
required,  and  the  child  must  learn  very  early  that,  what- 
ever his  desire  may  be,  there  are  certain  things  he  must  do, 
regularly  and  unquestioningly.  Still,  to  get  the  value  of 
good  habits,  we  must  succeed,  sooner  or  later,  in  winning 
the  will  of  the  child  to  some  measure  of  affirmation  of  the 
right  action. 

On  the  other  hand,  psychologists  have  not  seen  clearly 
enough  how  indifferent  habits  are  morally.  Almost  any 
habit  may  be  utilized  for  bad  ends  as  well  as  good.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  habit  of  cleanliness  and  order.  How 
excellent  it  is  as  a  basis  of  sane  living.  We  must  learn 
to  put  things  in  their  places  automatically  and  be  clean 
without  thinking  about  it.  Yet  even  this  admirable  habit 
may  be  brought  into  the  service  of  all  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness, as  when  a  mother  allows  her  habit  of  order  to  stand 
in  the  way  of  the  reasonable  activity  of  her  children,  or 
when  her  habit  of  cleanliness  results  in  dressing  them  up 
like  artificial  puppets  and  preventing  healthy  outdoor 
play.  So  the  habit  of  order  in  any  person  living  much 
alone  is  apt  to  become  a  still  more  serious  handicap  to 
good  living,  resulting  in  real  slavery  to  things. 

Again,  it  is  a  good  habit  to  eat  one's  meals  regularly  and 


150  MORAL    EDUCATION 

have  a  sufBcient  amount  and  variety  of  well-cooked  food. 
Yet  everyone  can  recall  individuals  who  are  so  tied  to 
their  three  good  meals  a  day  that  they  make  themselves 
and  everyone  else  miserable  the  moment  their  habits  are 
broken  into  by  circumstances.  Let  me  choose  as  a  further 
illustration  a  habit  still  more  definitely  moral  in  import — 
that  of  frank  and  regular  truth-telling.  Surely  it  is  one  of 
the  m  st  valuable  habits  we  can  foster;  yet,  unsupervised 
by  reason  and  good  taste,  it  may  give  unnecessary  hurts 
and  mar  one's  whole  relation  to  other  people. 

Thus  habits  are  distinctly  not  morality,  though  it  is 
i  easy  to  see  how  the  superstition  arose  that  they  were 
so.  They  are  simply  wonderful  instruments,  to  be 
utilized  and  supervised  by  conscious  reason.  Up  to  a 
certain  point  they  economize  nervous  energy  and  are  thus 
a  means  of  freedom,  beyond  that  point  they  directly  en- 
slave us.  Professor  James  says,  in  one  of  the  most  bril- 
liant passages  of  his  widely  quoted  chapter  on  Habit, — a 
passage  he  himself  values  so  highly  that  he  repeats  it  in  his 
Talks  to  Teachers: 

"The  more  of  the  details  of  our  daily  life  we  can  hand 
over  to  the  effortless  custody  of  automatism,  the  more  our 
higher  powers  of  mind  will  be  set  free  for  their  own  proper 
work.  There  is  no  more  miserable  human  being  than  one 
in  whom  nothing  is  habitual  but  indecision,  and  for  whom 
the  lighting  of  every  cigar,  the  drinking  of  every  cup,  the 
time  of  rising  and  going  to  bed  every  day,  and  the  beginning 
of  every  bit  of  work  are  subjects  of  express  volitional 
deliberation."^ 

All  would  give  most  cordial  assent  to  the  general  prin- 

1  The  principles  of   Psychology,   vol.  I,  p.  122,  also  in  Talks  to 
Teachers,  p.  67. 


DEMOCRACY    IN    HOME   AND    SCHOOL    GOVERNMENT      151 

ciple  Professor  James  expresses.  Yet  the  very  illustra- 
tions he  uses  suggest  the  limitation  of  that  principle.  It  is 
exactly  the  *cup'  and  *  cigar'  that  need  constant  super- 
vision by  conscious  reason.  The  man  whose  habit  of 
smoking  has  become  so  automatic  that  he  smokes  a  good 
part  of  the  day  without  knowing  it,  loses  the  pleasure  of 
smoking,  just  as  he  loses  the  taste  for  excellent  tobacco. 
While  the  man  who  smokes  occasionally,  with  a  conscious 
sense  of  new  experience  each  time,  keeps  the  habit  in 
control,  and  at  the  same  time  gets  far  more  pleasure  out  of 
it.  It  is  just  those  unnecessary  luxuries  that  are  on  the 
margin  of  healthy  living  that  need  most  of  all  to  be  kept 
under  the  control  of  conscious  reason.  To  allow  the  use 
of  them  to  become  blind  habit  is  to  be  enslaved  by  them. 

Thus  it  is  as  necessary  that  one  should  be  able  to  break 
the  routine  of  habit  for  adequate  cause,  as  it  is  that  one 
should  relegate  much  of  life  to  the  "custody  of  automat- 
ism." There  are  really  two  different  elements  in  our 
adaptation  to  the  conditions  and  laws  of  life.  Through 
automatic  habit  we  become  adapted  to  the  more  permanent 
and  statical  elements  of  environment,  through  conscious 
reason  and  control  we  are  adapted  to  the  new  and  dynamic 
factors.  The  first  principle  means  economy,  the  second 
progress,  and  thus  the  latter  is  distinctly  higher  in  import. 
Our  life  may  depend  much  more  on  our  ability  to  resume 
conscious  control  of  an  action  and  break  the  continuity  of 
habit,  than  upon  the  strength  of  the  latter.  For  instance, 
it  is  widely  noted  how  beneficent  is  the  provision  that  walk- 
ing becomes  automatic,  one  foot  after  the  other  being  lifted 
and  put  down  with  no  consciousness  on  our  part.  Sud- 
denly one  finds  one's  right  foot  lifted  over  an  open  cellar 
door :  safety  and  even  life  itself  may  depend  upon  the  vigor 


152  MORAL   EDUCATION 

and  quickness  with  which  one  can  regain  control  of  the 
function  and  put  the  foot  down  otherwise  than  the  autom- 
atism of  habit  would  demand. 

Consider  a  young  man  who  grows  up  in  a  morally 
healthy  American  community  where  a  certain  type  of 
conduct  toward  women  prevails.  He  naturally  forms  the 
habit  of  that  type  of  conduct.  Suppose  him  to  be  sud- 
denly transported  as  an  art  student  to  a  continental  Euro- 
pean city.  He  finds  himself  in  an  environment  where  a 
totally  different  attitude  toward  women  prevails.  His 
conduct  will  depend  somewhat,  but  not  mainly,  on  the 
basis  of  habit  he  has  formed.  As  that  habit  was  built 
up  by  a  past  environment,  it  will  tend  gradually  to  be  re- 
placed by  another  echoing  the  new  environment.  The 
young  man^s  moral  welfare  will  depend  far  less  on  habit, 
than  upon  his  own  independent  ideal  of  life  and  the  strength 
of  his  conscious  self-control  in  obedience  to  it. 

Habits  are  therefore  distinctly  not  morality,  but  the  tools 
of  morality,  or  the  material  which  can  be  utilized  for  moral 
ends.  To  live  well  we  need  to  form  good  habits,  but  it  is 
even  more  necessary  that  these  should  be  constantly  con- 
trolled and  frequently  revised  by  conscious  reason.  The 
habits  may  be  as  mechanical  as  possible  if  they  are  kept  in 
their  place,  but  to  trust  to  the  mechanism  of  habit  alone  is 
to  invite  moral  atrophy  or  disaster. 

Therefore,  as  it  is  necessary  to  insist  upon  obedience  to 
personal  authority  from  the  beginning  of  the  child's  life, 
thus  establishing  a  basis  of  moral  habits,  brain-paths  to 
right  action,  so  it  is  necessary  to  transfigure  that  obedience 
into  free  and  intelligent  response  to  law  as  early  and  as 
rapidly  as  possible,  thus  bringing  the  blind  mechanism  of 
habit  under  the  control  and  guidance  of  free  and  conscious 


DEMOCRACY   IN   HOME   AND   SCHOOL   GOVERNMENT     153 

reason.  It  is  wonderful  how  early  this  can  be  done 
in  some  measure,  thus  making  possible  a  considerable 
degree  of  democracy  in  government.  The  wise  parent 
will  have  done  something,  even  before  the  child  reaches 
school  age,  to  make  him  aware  of  the  reasons  for 
obedience,  and  from  the  beginning  of  the  school  period  the 
growth  into  independent  action  can  be  very  rapid.  Still, 
until  the  period  of  young  manhood  or  womanhood  is 
reached,  absolute  democracy  can  rarely  be  safely  intro- 
duced. The  parent  or  teacher  will  resemble  a  constitu- 
tional monarch  rather  than  a  democratic  president,  hold- 
ing always  a  large  part  of  the  judicial  as  well  as  the 
executive  authority,  and  cooperating  in  all  legislation, 
whether  definitely  formulated  or  not;  but  holding  this 
unique  attitude:  anxious  to  let  his  authority  slip  from  his 
hands  as  rapidly  as  is  consistent  with  the  safety  of  those 
over  whom  it  is  exercised,  and  as  fast  as  they  can  intelli- 
gently take  it  up  for  themselves. 

Thus  it  is  necessary  for  parents  and  teachers  to  plan 
definite  opportunities  for  conferring  with  the  children 
about  the  aim  and  principles  of  their  common  task  of 
government.  With  a  little  care  this  is  not  difficult  to 
accomplish  in  the  home.  In  school,  the  teacher  should 
have  at  regular  periods  talks  with  the  pupils  (not  at  them) 
about  the  questions  of  school  organization  and  discipline. 
The  children  should  be  encouraged  to  see  and  express  for 
themselves  the  simple  aims  and  laws  of  the  school,  that  a 
public  opinion  in  support  of  the  latter  may  be  built  up. 
It  is  wonderful  how  much  these  talks,  wisely  managed,  can 
do  to  transform  blind  obedience  into  the  free  and  intelli- 
gent response  to  law  that  is  the  end  of  our  government. 

There  is  one  further  diflSculty  we  must  overcome  in  thus 


154  MORAL   EDUCATION 

attempting  to  introduce  democracy  progressively  in  home 
and  school  government :  it  is  often  hard  for  us  to  grant  the 
increasing  freedom  so  necessary  to  the  child's  moral  growth. 
This  is  apt  to  be  difficult  for  us  just  in  proportion  to  our 
own  moral  strength  and  earnestness.  The  more  deeply 
we  are  interested  in  the  child's  welfare  and  the  more  vigor- 
ously we  have  tried  to  help  him,  the  more  we  realize  the 
superivjrity  of  our  own  judgment  over  his,  and  so  regret  to 
see  him  make  mistakes  in  the  clumsy  exercise  of  his  free- 
dom. So  we  tend  to  draw  the  reins  tighter  until  we  are  in 
danger  of  becoming  a  veritable  martinet,  holding  the  child 
back  with  a  multitude  of  petty  restrictions.  When  this 
happens,  he  not  only  fails  of  the  desired  growth  into  free 
and  intelligent  action,  but  is  in  danger  of  violently  reacting 
against  all  authority.^  There  is  a  current  proverb  that 
"ministers'  children  turn  out  badly."  Of  course  it  is  not 
true;  but  the  greater  moral  interest  and  care  that  ministers 
are  apt  as  a  class  to  give  their  children,  makes  it  more 
difficult  for  the  parent  to  let  go  increasingly  of  the  reins  and 
grant  the  measure  of  freedom  necessary  to  the  child's 
safety  as  well  as  growth. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  greater  the  moral  force 
in  parent  or  teacher,  the  greater  is  the  need  for  reserve  in  its 
assertion.^     As   a   father  who   is   powerfully   intellectual 

*  "  I  augur  better  of  a  child,  a  youth  who  is  wandering  astray  on  a 
path  of  his  own,  than  of  many  who  are  walking  aright  upon  paths 
which  are  not  theirs.  If  the  former,  either  by  themselves,  or  by  the 
guidance  of  others,  ever  find  the  right  path,  that  is  to  say,  the  path 
which  suits  their  nature,  they  will  never  leave  it ;  while  the  latter  are 
in  danger  every  moment  of  shaking  off  a  foreign  yoke,  and  abandon- 
ing themselves  to  unrestricted  license." — Goethe,  Wilhelm  Meister's 
Apprenticeship  and  Travels,  translated  by  Carlyle,  vol.  II,  p.  98. 

^  "  Parents  must  not  bear  the  children's  burdens  for  them  so  long 
and  so  completely,  that  the  cliildren  acquire  no  strength  wherewith 


DEMOCRACY    IN    HOME   AND   SCHOOL   GOVERNMENT      155 

may  so  overburden  his  children  as  to  prevent  their  fullest 
intellectual  unfolding,  so  a  father  or  teacher  who  is  un- 
usually strong  morally  may  exercise  a  similarly  overshad- 
owing influence  in  that  aspect  of  the  child's  growth,  and 
thus  check  or  crush  the  child's  moral  originality  or 
initiative. 

We  must  then  learn  that  hardest  form  of  self-sacrifice, 
the  denial  of  our  own  instinctive  desire  to  help  the  child, 
and  let  him  strive  to  help  himself,  even  though  his  efforts 
are  clumsy  and  imperfect.  Only  through  the  increasing 
use  of  freedom  can  he  be  prepared  for  freedom.  If  our 
government  of  him  furthers  the  normal  process  of  convert- 
ing his  blind  obedience  into  free  and  intelligent  response 
to  law,  he  is  being  fitted  for  the  functions  of  good  citizen- 
ship under  free  institutions,  as  well  as  for  life  in  this  human 
world,  where  each  is  free  to  choose  the  best  and  live  or  the 
worst  and  die.  We  may  reasonably  hope  that  such  gov- 
ernment will  lead  our  children  to  recognize  the  great  ends 
of  human  life  and  the  laws  which  lead  to  them.  Without 
passing  through  any  period  of  harmful  capricious  reaction, 
they  should  be  able  to  pass  naturally  from  the  little  world 
of  the  home  and  the  school  into  the  larger  opportunities 
and  duties  of  human  life,  recognizing  that  the  same  laws  to 
which  they  have  learned  intelligently  and  freely  to  respond 
are  the  conditions  of  happiness  and  helpfulness  in  the  great 
world. 


to  bear  their  own.  A  mistake  that  a  boy  makes  himself,  and  corrects 
himself,  is  often  better  than  a  dozen  right  answers  furnished  for  him 
ready-made  by  an  over-solicitous  father  or  mother." — William 
DkWitt  Hyde,  Practical  Idealism,  p.  173. 


XV 

THE  NATURE  AND  FUNCTION  OF  CORRECT- 
IVE DISCIPLINE 

In  carrying  into  practice  the  principles  of  government 
I  have  outHned,  each  child  presents  a  fresh  problem;  and 
I  must  now  consider  the  difficult  question  of  the  use  of 
punishments  and  rewards  in  rendering  our  control  of 
children  effective  for  moral  culture.  No  matter  how  kind 
and  loving  government  may  be,  until  the  plane  of  free 
response  to  law  is  reached,  its  authority  must  be  enforced 
by  the  use  of  some  kind  of  corrective  discipline.  No  child 
acts  constantlj^  in  harmony  with  the  best;  and  it  is  part 
of  our  duty  to  utilize  forces  which  will  help  the  child  over 
his  mistakes  and  bring  him  into  willing  response  to  the 
law  it  is  necessary  to  his  welfare  he  should  obey. 

This  use  of  corrective  discipline  is  obviously  only  a 
fraction  of  the  problem  of  control.  The  main  exercise  of 
our  authority  should  be  in  establishing  conditions  of  moral 
health  in  the  ways  already  indicated :  regulating  the  work 
and  play  of  children,  and  utilizing  the  influences  of  good 
environment  in  art,  nature  and  humanity.  As  physically 
light,  air,  food  and  exercise  are  far  more  important  than 
medicine,  and  if  rightly  used  will  relegate  the  latter  to  a 
place  of  relative  insignificance,  so  in  the  moral  world, 
nourishing  and  guiding  the  positive  growth  in  love  and 
reason,  establishing  good  habits  by  the  gymnastic  of  con- 


THE   FUNCTION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE  157 

stant  exercise,  are  our  main  problem  in  governing  children, 
and  in  so  far  as  we  succeed  with  it  we  obviate  the  need  of 
punishment. 

Therefore  any  theory  of  education  is  wrong  which  em- 
phasizes punishment  as  the  chief  means  of  moral  culture. 
The  most  conspicuous  recent  example  of  such  a  theory 
is  found,  rather  unexpectedly,  not  among  the  theologians, 
but  among  the  scientists,  in  Spencer's  admirable  little 
treatise.^  With  his  usual  incisiveness  Spencer  strikes  at 
the  heart  of  the  subject  from  the  side  upon  which  he 
attacks  it,  affirming  that  the  chief  moral  function  of  the 
parent  is  to  see  that  the  child  experiences,  in  a  measure 
not  dangerous  to  life  or  health,  the  natural  consequences 
of  his  actions.^  This  obviously  leaves  us  to  enforce  the 
consequences  of  good  as  well  as  bad  actions;  but  Spencer's 
whole  emphasis  is  placed  on  bringing  home  to  the  child 
the  result  of  his  misdeeds  that  he  may  learn  a  prudential 
respect  for  the  law  he  has  violated.  Such  prudence  is  a 
valuable  element  of  moral  life,  but  our  study  so  far  has 
shown  how  much  more  is  demanded  in  any  adequate 
education  for  good  living.  Our  main  task  is  to  awaken 
the  positive  moral  life.  The  method  of  moral  education 
must  be  as  positive  as  is  its  aim.  Evil  is  overcome  less  by 
struggling  against  it  than  by  affirming  the  good  of  which 
it  is  the  negation  or  distortion.  We  conquer  evil  habits 
by  building  good  ones;  we  overcome  evil  desires  by  falling 

^  Herbert  Spencer,  Educaiioyi:  Intellectual,  Moral  and  Physical, 
part  III,  Moral  Education. 

^  "  Is  it  not  manifest  that  as  'ministers  and  interpreters  of  Nature' 
it  is  the  function  of  parents  to  see  that  their  children  habitually 
experience  the  true  consequences  of  their  conduct — the  natural  reac- 
tions: neither  warding  them  off,  nor  intensifying  them,  nor  putting 
artificial  consequences  in  T)lace  of  them?  No  unprejudiced  reader 
will  hesitate  in  his  assent," — Spencer,  Education,  p.  178. 


158  MORAL   EDUCATION 

in  love  with  something  above  ourselves.  The  anchorite 
in  the  desert  is  tortured  by  sensual  dreams;  the  man  living 
sanely  in  the  world,  absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  some  worthy 
objective  end,  can  hardly  understand  the  other's  tempta- 
tion. 

The  Greeks,  who  believed  so  thoroughly  in  the  pyositive 
view  o^  life,  have  given  us  the  clue  to  the  right  method  of 
moral  culture  in  the  old  story  of  the  Sirens.  Both  Ulysses 
and  Orpheus  passed  the  Sirens,  escaped  falling  victims  to 
the  allurements  of  evil,  but  how  differently.  When 
Ulysses  realized  that  he  was  near  the  Sirens  he  had  the 
ears  of  his  sailors  stopped,  and  caused  himself  to  be  bound 
to  the  mast.  When  he  came  within  hearing  of  the  Siren 
music  he  was  charmed  by  it  and  struggled  to  free  himself, 
calling  loudly  to  the  sailors  to  release  him  that  he  might 
go  to  the  sweet  singers.  The  sailors,  not  hearing,  were 
untempted,  and  they  rowed  him  by.  They  rowed  him 
by!  That  is  all  one  can  say.  It  was  small  credit  to  the 
moral  character  of  Ulysses,  though  much  to  his  prudential 
foresight.  On  the  other  hand,  when  Orpheus  came  within 
hearing  of  the  Sirens,  he  played  so  sweetly  upon  the  instru- 
ment he  had  invented  and  sang  so  wondrously  that  he 
was  not  tempted  to  leave  the  ship,  nor  were  his  com- 
rades. It  is  symbolic  of  the  whole  problem  of  moral 
living;  to  waken  from  the  instrument  of  one's  own  life  such 
music  that  one  is  untempted  by  the  Siren  song  of  evil. 

Still,  if  corrective  discipline  is  but  a  fraction  of  the 
problem  of  government,  it  is  an  indispensable  part;  and  as 
with  all  other  aspects  of  our  control  of  children  its  whole 
aim  is  the  moral  welfare  of  the  child.  This  fact  is  not  well 
understood  by  many  parents  and  some  teachers  at  the 
present  time.     The  old  notions  of  punishment  still  prevail 


THE   FUNCTION   OF   CORRECTIVE    DISCIPLINE  159 

and  determine  our  treatment  of  children  in  critical  mo- 
ments of  their  moral  growth. 

The  oldest  notion  of  punishment,  historically,  was  nar- 
rowly retributive  and  born  of  the  instinct  of  revenge.^  It 
held  that  the  offender  should  be  given  the  same  kind  and 
amount  of  pain  he  had  inflicted  on  others:  "an  eye  for  an 
eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth/*  Undoubtedly  there  is  a  cer- 
tain natural  basis  for  this  principle :  deeds  do  return  to  the 
doer,  and  the  tendency  of  the  universe  is  that  the  evil  you 
do  you  shall  suffer.  Moreover,  we  can  within  strict  limits 
utilize  this  natural  tendency  for  purposes  of  discipline, 
in  some  cases  bringing  home  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
offender  the  meaning  of  what  he  has  done  by  repeating  it 
upon  him.  Yet  such  discipline  should  be  given  for  the 
purpose  of  reforming  the  offender;  and  surely  punishment 
should  never  spring  from  either  the  passion  or  the  idea  of 
vengeance.  Is  the  spirit  of  revenge  ever  today  other  than 
a  hindrance  to  the  right,  a  clouding  of  the  moral  atmos- 
phere? Therefore,  is  not  all  punishment  for  revenge  a 
survival  of  what  should  be  obsolete?  Whatever  we 
hold  with  reference  to  the  state,  certainly  such  punishment 
should  be  obsolete  in  the  discipline  of  children. 

Following  the  punishment  of  revenge  there  came  his- 
torically a  period  when  punishment  was  used  by  the  state 
to  deter  the  criminal  and  his  fellows  from  the  commission 
of  further  crimes.  Clearly  the  duty  of  self-protection 
gives  society  the  right  to  use  such  deterrent  punishment, 
could  it  only  be  used  wisely.  In  fact,  much  of  our  present 
penal  system  rests  upon  this  principle.     The  tendency 

*  See  the  excellent  discussion  of  different  theories  of  primitive 
justice,  in  W.  W.  Willoughby's  Social  Justice,  chapter  X,  The 
Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1900, 


160  MORAL   EDUCATION 

in  all  civilized  lands,  however,  is  to  soften  increasingly  the 
terrible  puishments  which  were  given  in  the  earlier  applica- 
tions of  the  deterrent  principle,  since  severe  punishments 
have  proved  so  ineffectual  in  preventing  crime.  For 
instance,  thieves  were  never  more  abundant  than  when 
hanging  was  the  punishment  meted  out  to  their  crime 
together  with  most  offenses,  and  thieves  were  then  cer- 
tainly more  murderous.  Moreover,  even  were  it  possible 
to  avoid  the  terrible  abuses  into  which  the  state  has  fallen 
in  the  application  of  the  deterrent  principle,  the  result 
would  still  be  economic  rather  than  moral.  A  criminal  is 
not  made  into  a  good  man  by  being  frightened  out  of  his 
crime.  Our  aim  in  the  discipline  of  children  is  not  to 
protect  ourselves  from  their  misdeeds,  but  to  lead  them  to 
love  and  will  the  best.  It  is  true,  there  are  parents  who 
utilize  punishment  merely  to  gain  their  own  comfort. 
They  usually  claim  that  they  have  a  'right*  to  punish 
their  children  because  the  children  are  their  own.  Such 
parents  do  not  belong  in  our  civilization;  they  should 
have  lived — and  died — in  the  old  Roman  days  when  the 
child  was  legally  the  father's  property.  The  right  to 
punish  your  child  because  it  is  your  own  ?  Say  rather, 
the  duty  to  give  it  the  treatment  that  will  help  it  to  the  best 
human  development. 

What,  from  the  point  of  view  of  human  society,  are  then 
the  moral  reasons  for  punishment?  They  are  two,  and 
they  can  be  very  simply  illustrated.  If  you  had  a  gan- 
grened finger  you  would  go  to  the  best  physician  you 
knew  and  seek  to  have  it  cured.  If  it  could  not  be  cured, 
you  would  have  it  amputated,  in  the  hope  of  protecting  | 
your  whole  body  from  the  disease.  A  criminal  is  a  | 
gangrened  member  of  the  commonwealth:  it  is  always         1 


THE   FUNCTION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE  161 

our  duty  to  cure  him  if  we  can;  if  not,  to  amputate  him  from 
the  social  whole  to  protect  it  from  the  infection  of  his  crime. 

Thus,  morally  considered,  just  punishment  is  one  of  two 
things:  it  is  moral  medicine  or  moral  surgery;  and  under 
these  two  heads  really  falls  whatever  is  just  and  helpful 
in  the  way  of  deterrent  punishment.  In  dealing  with  a 
society  of  children  the  element  of  moral  surgery  sinks  into 
relative  insignificance.  There  are  children  so  hopelessly 
spoiled  that  no  appeal  we  can  make  will  reach  them,  and  we 
must  resort  to  their  separation  from  normal  children  for 
the  protection  of  the  latter.  At  times,  expulsion  from  the 
school,  or  sending  the  child  to  an  institution  for  reform  is  the 
one  solution.  Such  cases  ought  never  to  come  in  the  homt 
and  they  are  very  rare  in  the  school.  Thus  the  problem  of 
corrective  discipline,  as  it  presents  itself  in  our  government 
of  children,  is  mainly  to  give  each  child  the  moral  medicine 
that  will  correct  his  faults  and  help  him  to  moral  health. 

Is  it  possible  to  go  beyond  this  principle  and  prescribe 
generally  the  moral  medicine  in  advance  ?  Spencer  thinks 
so,  holding,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the  one  beneficial  form 
of  punishment  is  the  natural  consequence  of  the  child's 
misdeed.  To  take  the  universally  cited  illustration:  as 
the  child  learns  that  fire  is  a  dangerous  plaything  by  being 
burned  one  or  more  times,  so  he  should  experience  the 
inexorable  and  inevitable  consequences  of  all  his  actions 
that  are  not  in  harmony  with  law,  and  thus  learn  to  keep 
his  conduct  within  the  limits  Nature  so  rigorously  estab- 
lishes. Nearly  the  whole  of  Spencer's  treatise  on  Moral 
Education  is  devoted  to  expanding  and  illustrating  this  view. 
Obviously  it  is  but  a  modern,  more  scientific  development 
of  a  part  of  Rousseau's  theory ;  but  the  authority  of  Spencer 
and  the  ripeness  of  the  time  have  given  it  wide  acceptance. 


162  MORAL    EDUCATION 

This  theory  of  Spencer's  in  reference  to  moral  discipline 
is  not  unhke  the  dreams  of  Hahnemann  in  medicine. 
It  may  seem  strange  to  Hken  the  rigorous,  anything  but 
gentle  reactions  Spencer  would  utilize,  with  the  attenuated 
medicines  of  the  German  mystic ;  yet  the  two  theories  result 
in  similar  influences.  As  the  "similia  similihus  curantur^' 
and  "m  mildness  is  strength"  of  Hahnemann  profoundly 
modified  the  older  empirical  science  of  medicine,  making 
its  treatment  gentler  and  its  procedure  closer  to  nature, 
so  the  distinctly  allopathic  theory  of  Spencer  tends  to 
eliminate  the  arbitrary  and  therefore  harmful  elements 
of  punishment  and  to  give  the  order  and  unity  of  natural 
law  to  our  discipline  of  children.  As  Hahnemann  wrote 
in  opposition  to  such  arbitrary  methods  in  medicine  as  the 
traditional  'bleeding'  to  cure  all  diseases,  so  Spencer  writes 
in  conscious  protest  against  the  irrational  and  arbitrary 
character  of  our  habitual  treatment  of  children;  and  cer- 
tainly the  parent  who  indiscriminately  whips  or  scolds  a 
child  for  every  fault,  and  even  for  the  chance  arousing  of 
the  parent's  impatience,  needs  the  chastening  reasonable- 
ness of  Spencer's  view.  To  give  any  kind  of  medicine 
without  reference  to  the  state  of  the  patient  and  the  nature 
of  the  disease  is  in  most  cases  to  do  grave  harm;  and  scold- 
ing contends  with  whipping  for  the  rank  of  being  the  worst 
of  all  forms  of  moral  medicine  to  give  indiscriminately.^ 

^  "As  Children  should  very  seldom  be  corrected  by  Blows,  so  I  think 
frequent,  and  especially  passionate  Chiding  of  almost  as  ill  Conse- 
quence. It  lessens  the  Authority  of  the  Parents,  and  the  Respect  of 
the  Child ;  for  I  bid  you  still  remember,  they  distinguish  early  be- 
twixt Passion  and  Reason :  And  as  they  cannot  but  have  a  Reverence 
for  what  comes  from  the  latter,  so  they  quickly  grow  into  a  Con- 
tempt of  the  former ;  or  if  it  causes  a  present  Terror,  yet  it  soon  wears 
off,  and  natural  Inclination  will  easily  learn  to  slight  such  Scare- 
crows which  make  a  Noise,  but  are  not  animated  by  Reason," — 
i.^>CKE,  Some  Thoughts  concerning  Education,  edited  by  Quick,  p.  56. 


THE   FUNCTION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE  163 

It  would  thus  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  value  of 
Spencer^s  clean-cut  theory  in  clarifying  and  rationalizing 
our  discipline  of  children.  Is  he  not^  however,  in  error  in 
advocating  a  single  type  of  punishment  as  the  sure  cure 
for  all  moral  diseases  ?  There  are  many  cases  where  the 
natural  working  out  of  a  misdeed  is  the  most  effective 
medicine,  or  at  least  a  part  of  it,  for  curing  the  child; 
there  are  many  other  cases  where  it  is  distinctly  not  so. 
A  tardy  child  may  well  be  left  behind  when  one  goes  driv- 
ing; a  careless  child  should  be  refused  opportunities  to  do 
mischief,  though  practice  in  carefulness  is  even  more  neces- 
sary to  his  cure.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  enough  that 
a  child  who  is  lazy  should  suffer  the  parent's  disapproba- 
tion and  the  failure  to  attain  ends  that  are  worth  while; 
he  needs  to  be  held  quietly  but  firmly  to  the  regular  fulfill- 
ment of  assigned  tasks,  until  he  has  learned  to  master  his 
inertia.  Again,  the  natural  consequence  of  slovenly 
table-manners  is  exclusion  from  the  society  of  the  family 
at  meal-time.  Often  a  child  likes  nothing  better;  and, 
surely,  to  allow  him  to  be  as  slovenly  as  he  pleases  alone  is 
not  to  cure  him  of  the  fault,  but  to  deprive  him  of  just  the 
example  of  good  manners  that  may  finally  impress  itself 
upon  him.  So  the  gluttonous  child  needs,  not  to  be  allowed 
to  gorge  himself  and  then  to  suffer  the  natural  conse- 
quences,— physical  discomfort  and  ultimately  disease, 
with  the  increasing  disgust  of  those  about  him, — but  to  be 
held  persistently  to  rigid  self-denial  until  the  habit  of  con- 
trolling his  appetites  is  formed.  The  child  who  is  per- 
sonally dirty  needs  to  be  held  to  regular  habits  of  order 
and  cleanliness,  the  over  imaginative  child  to  definite  and 
exact  statement  of  reality:  thus  often  the  corrective  dis- 
cipline that  v.'il]  be  most  effective  in  curing  the  child  oi 


164  MORAL   EDUCATION 

the  fault  is  the  exact  opposite  of  the  working  out  of  the 
latter. 

Dante,  with  so  much  vaster  insight  into  the  human  spirit, 
understood  far  better  than  Spencer  the  nature  and  effect 
of  corrective  discipline.  In  the  Inferno,  where  the  souls 
hate  the  good,  all  the  punishments  are  the  natural  con- 
sequences, as  Dante  sees  them,  of  the  various  forms  of  sin; 
and.  with  the  attitude  of  hate  in  the  sinners,  these  punish- 
ments are  in  no  degree  reformative.  In  the  Purgatorio, 
where  the  souls  love  and  seek  the  good,  Dante  uses  at 
times  the  punishment  that  is  the  natural  working  out  of  the 
sin,  as  in  the  case  of  the  proud  who  are  loaded  down  with 
the  weight  of  their  pride,  the  angry  who  are  blinded  with 
the  smoke  of  their  own  passion,  or  the  licentious  who  are 
burned  with  the  fire  of  their  desires.  At  other  times  he 
uses  the  discipline  that  is  the  direct  opposite  of  the  sin, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  slothful  who  are  running  to  overcome 
the  inertia  of  their  wasted  yesterdays,  or  the  gluttonous 
who  are  schooled  to  self-denial  and  endurance  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  objects  of  their  desire.  The  point  is,  not  only 
that  each  of  the  two  types  of  punishment  may  be  curative 
for  certain  diseases,  but  that  the  effect  of  any  kind  of  moral 
medicine  will  depend  upon  the  attitude  of  the  patient. 

It  is  this  element  of  moral  attitude  and  intention  the 
relation  of  which  to  the  effect  of  punishment  Spencer  so 
signally  ignores.  To  do  wrong,  and  hate  the  good,  and 
suffer,  is  to  grow  worse;  to  do  wrong,  and  love  the  good, 
and  suffer,  may  mean  to  grow  into  nobler  life.  Thus  the 
same  form  of  suffering  will  often  deepen  the  hate  of  one 
and  chasten  and  sweeten  another.  "All  things  work  to- 
gether for  good  to  them  that  love  God,"^  never  to  the  others. 

^  Romans,  chapter  VIII,  v.  28. 


THE   FUNCTION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE  165 

If  a  soul  in  Dante's  Hell  could  be  turned  around  and  made 
to  face  toward  God,  it  would  be  spiritually  in  Purgatory, 
and  the  suffering  that  only  deepens  its  hate  might  educate. 
Thus  the  whole  moral  result  of  any  action  depends  partly 
upon  the  spiritual  intention  of  the  doer.  If  you  put  your 
hand  into  the  fire,  the  fire  burns  it;  if  you  lie  to  me,  I  may 
or  may  not  cease  to  trust  you.  If  I  see  that  you  are  re- 
pentant and  honestly  struggling  toward  the  truth,  I  may 
trust  you  the  more  because  of  the  bitter  experience  we 
have  passed  through  together.  Thus  while  the  natural 
consequences  of  any  action,  that  is,  the  results  depending 
upon  its  modification  of  the  physical  order,  are  inevitable, 
the  moral  consequences,  though  equally  law-abiding,  are 
partly  determined  by  the  attitude  of  the  doer  and  will  be 
altered  by  any  change  in  that  attitude. 

I  need  hardly  insist  on  this  truth  to  any  teacher  or 
parent  who  has  had  thoughtful  experience  with  children. 
It  is  far  less  important  what  punishment  we  give  a  child 
than  what  his  attitude  is  toward  being  punished.  I  have 
seen  children  quite  as  violently  enraged  over  receiving  the 
entirely  natural  consequences  of  their  misdeeds  as  they 
could  possibly  be  over  any  purely  artificial  punishment. 
Indeed,  cannot  one  recall  men  and  women  of  whom  the 
same  statement  is  true  ?  To  be  sure,  the  rage  of  the  one 
punished  does  not  prove  the  punishment  bad,  but  correct- 
ive discipline  does  little  for  moral  reformation  unless  we 
can  win  the  reason  of  the  offender  to  assent  to  its  justice, 
if  not  his  will  to  its  reception. 

It  would  perhaps  be  captious  to  point  further  that  the 
word  'natural'  may  mean  anything,  and  so  is  the  source 
of  great  confusion.  Spencer's  use  of  the  word  is  surpris- 
ingly loose  in  the  light  of  his  usual  scientific  exactness  of 


166  MORAL   EDUCATION 

statement.  It  is  *  natural '  for  an  irritated  parent  to  scold 
and  for  a  self-controlled  one  to  deal  gently  and  patiently 
with  a  child.  Which  is  the  natural  consequence  that 
should  be  allowed  to  follow  and  so  teach  the  inexorable- 
ness  of  law  ?  Further,  if  the  whole  function  of  discipline 
were  to  allow  the  child  to  suffer  the  natural  consequences 
of  his  deeds,  our  office  would  be  purely  negative,  consisting 
merely  in  keeping  our  hands  off,  a  conclusion  so  extreme 
that  even  Spencer  does  not  accept  it.^ 

No,  the  purpose  of  the  punishments  we  give  children  is 
just  to  save  the  waste  of  nature,  to  correct  the  fault  before 
it  has  worked  out  its  natural  consequences  in  the  spirit  and 
life  of  the  child.  Sin  is  death;  and  if  the  individual  sin 
long  enough  and  deep  enough  he  will  find  it  out — by  dying. 
The  function  of  corrective  discipline  is  just  to  avoid  that 
result,  to  check  the  disease  and  if  possible  cure  the  child 
before  the  sad  conclusion  of  death  comes  to  any  capac- 
ity of  his  spirit. 


^  The  best  criticism  of  Spencer's  theory  I  have  seen  is  that  by 
Emily  A.  E.  Shirreff,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  Moral  Training: 
Froebel  and  Herbert  Spencer.  This  brief  pamphlet  is  full  of  wisdom 
and  helpful  suggestion.  If  somewhat  over  zealous  for  Froebel,  it 
nevertheless  presents  clearly  the  limitations  of  Spencer's  view,  and 
shows  how  complementary  that  view  and  the  one  usually  held  in 
the  kindergarten  are  to  each  other. 


XVI 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CORRECTIVE  DIS- 
CIPLINE 

If  corrective  discipline  should  always  be  regarded  as 
moral  medicine,  given  to  reestablish  moral  health  in  the 
child,  how  shall  we  proceed  in  order  to  administer  it 
wisely  and  successfully?  Does  not  the  parallel  physical 
case  throw  light  on  our  problem  ?  If  your  child  is  ill  in 
body  you  do  not  go  to  the  drug-store  and  buy  some  patent 
medicine  and  feed  it  to  him — not  if  you  have  some  glim- 
merings of  intelligence.  You  call  in  a  trained  expert, 
who  examines  the  child  in  detail :  feels  the  pulse,  takes  the 
temperature,  considers  the  bodily  habit  and  condition  for 
days  past,  and  thus  makes  his  diagnosis  and  prescribes. 
Is  moral  diagnosis  easier?  And  yet  intelligent ( ?)  edu- 
cators continue  to  advocate  some  specific  moral  medicine — 
whipping,  keeping  in  after  school,  reasoning  with  the  child, 
or  whatever  the  proposed  remedy  may  be — as  the  cure-all 
for  every  disease!  When  a  difficult  case  of  moral  disease 
arises  should  not  our  method  of  treatment  be  similar  to 
that  which  we  consider  wisest  in  dealing  with  bodily  ill- 
ness? We  need  the  counsel  of  every  available  expert — 
school  principal,  minister,  physician  or  other  wise  friend; 
and  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  in  our  public  school 
system  we  shall  make  regular  provision  for  such  expert 
consultation.      Meantime  every  parent  and  teacher  must 


168  MORAL   EDUCATION 

strive  for  all  the  wisdom  and  training  possible  in  dealing 
with  difficult  problems.^  The  moral  diagnosis  is  surely- 
more  subtle  and  difficult  than  the  physical.  We  must  make 
it  with  the  help  of  all  the  wisdom  and  skill  we  can  bring 
to  bear  upon  the  special  case;  and  then  with  equal  thought 
and  care  the  needed  moral  medicine  must  be  adminis- 
tered.^ There  is  no  way  of  deciding  beforehand  what  that 
medicire  should  be;  it  must  be  adapted  to  the  special  state 
of  the  individual,  and  can  be  most  wisely  selected  only  when 
all  the  factors  bringing  about  the  abnorm.al  condition  are 
understood.  That  is  why  much  of  the  discussion  of  cor- 
poral punishment,  pro  and  con,  has  been  so  futile.  There 
is  no  meaning  in  asking  whether  or  not  corporal  punish- 
ment should  be  used.  There  are  cases  Vvhere  a  good, 
strong  dose  of  quinine  is  prescribed  by  an  intelligent 
physician  as  the  best  medicine  for  the  child's  body.  So 
there  are  cases  where  a  good,  straight  infliction  of  physical 
pain  will  best  meet  a  child's  specific  moral  condition.^ 
Whether  the  right  to  administer  such  a  medicine  can 
safely  be  entrusted  to  the  average  teacher  is  another 
question.     Strong  medicines  are  dangerous  for  general  use 

^  "The  best  humored  woman  in  the  world,  if  she  is  stupid,  is  not  fit 
to  have  the  care  of  a  child." — M.  and  R.  L.  Edgeworth,  Practical 
Education,  vol.  I,  p.  138. 

^  "  I  confess  that  I  have  been  amazed  and  oven\'helmed,  to  see  a 
teacher  spend  an  hour  at  the  blackboard,  explaining  arithmetical 
questions,  and  another  hour  on  the  reading  or  grammar  lessons; 
and,  in  the  meantime,  as  though  it  were  only  some  interlude,  seize 
a  boy  by  the  collar,  drag  him  to  the  floor,  castigate  him,  and  remand 
Mm  to  his  seat, — -the  whole  process  not  occupying  two  minutes. 
5uch  laborious;  processes  for  the  intellect,  such  summary  dealings 
vith  the  heartX' — Horace  Mann,  The  Life  and  Works  'of  Horace 
Mann,  vol.  II /pp.  359-3G0. 

^  "The  view  which  sees  in  the  rod  the  panacea  for  all  the  teacher's 
embarrassments  is  reprehensible,  but  equally  so  is  the  false  senti- 
mentality which  assumes  that  the  dignity  of  humanity  is  affected 


THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE    169 

in  exact  proportion  to  their  effectiveness  in  rare  cases. 
The  careless  use  of  strong  remedies  has  done  infinite  harm ; 
and  to  whip  for  every  moral  fault  is  exactly  on  the  plane  of 
medicine  when  it  bled  the  patient  for  every  disease.  To 
administer  any  medicine,  physical  or  moral,  as  the  one 
cure  for  all  possible  diseases,  is  to  do  positive  harm  to 
the  vast  majority  of  cases.  But  leaving  aside  the  difficult 
question  of  the  measure  of  authority  in  using  strong 
remedies  which  may  safely  be  accorded  to  this  or  that 
person,  certainly  any  medicine  or  method  of  treatment 
may  be  best  for  some  special  case,  and  the  problem  of 
prescription  is  wholly  individual. 

This  does  not  mean  that  we  have  no  principles  to  guide 
us  in  prescribing :  were  that  true,  our  art  of  moral  discipline 
would  degenerate  into  the  merest  artifice,  and  there  would 
be  no  meaning  in  our  attempt  to  study  it.  Again  the  com- 
parison with  medicine  holds.  Definite  principles  of  treat- 
ment are  laid  down  for  dealing  with  disease  in  its  various 
forms.  So  morally  we  are  guided  by  the  great  principles 
already   implied:     (1)    Corrective   discipline   should   aim 


by  a  blow  given  to  a  child,  and  confounds  self-conscious  humanity 
with  child-humanit}^  to  which  a  blow  is  the  most  natural  form  of 
reaction,  when  all  other  forms  of  influence  have  failed." — Rosen- 
KRANZ,  Philosophy  of  Education,  pp.  41-42. 

"It  will  be  in  vain  to  try  and  do  entirely  without  corporal  pun- 
ishments, which  usually  come  in  when  reproofs  are  of  no  further  use. 
They  ought  to  be  so  rare,  however,  that  they  are  feared  as  something 
in  the  distance  rather  than  as  actually  carried  into  effect." — 
Herbart,  Letters  and  Lectures  on  Education,  translated  by  Felkin, 
p.  123. 

Compare  further  the  discussion  of  punishments,  corporal  and 
other,  by  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  in  Moral  Education  and  Will- 
Traininq;,  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  II.,  pp.  72-89. 

See  William  Hawley  Smith,  The  Evolution  of  Dodd,  chapter  V, 
for  a  case  where  a  sound  whipping  was  the  best  possible  moral 
medicine. 


170  MORAL   EDUCATION 

solely  at  the  eradication  of  the  fault  and  the  establishment 
of  moral  health  in  the  child.  (2)  It  should  utilize  punish- 
ments which  are  as  natural  as  possible,  logically  flowing 
from  the  fault,  and  therefore  teaching  respect  for  the  laws 
of  life  and  prudence  in  the  presence  of  the  rigorous  limita- 
tions Nature  sets  to  human  action.  (3)  It  should  enforce 
the  discipline  that  gives  self-control  and  the  power  to  resist 
wrong  desire.  (4)  It  should  waken  love  and  pursuit  of  the 
virtue  of  which  the  fault  is  the  distortion  or  negation.  Yet, 
when  all  is  said,  the  prescription  in  every  case  must  be 
individual;  and  we  must  never  forget,  as  Arthur  Giles 
says  in  the  best  sentence  of  his  little  book  on  Moral 
Pathology  (p.  3),  that  "In  moral,  as  in  medical  pathology, 
the  patient,  and  not  the  disease,  must  be  treated." 

Let  me  take  a  few  characteristic  cases  of  moral  discipline 
to  illustrate  the  fact  that  while  we  must  be  guided  by  certain 
large  principles,  the  application  of  these  must  be  individual 
in  every  instance.  Consider  the  problem  of  the  lies  which 
so  many  children  form  the  habit  of  telling  somewhere 
between  the  ages  of  seven  and  fourteen.  Sometimes  this 
habit  of  telling  what  is  not  true  comes  merely  from  an 
over  active  imagination.  In  such  cases  we  need  to  bring 
the  child  into  contact  with  reality  in  nature  and  history, 
limit  somewhat  the  opportunities  for  the  play  of  his 
fancy,  and  hold  him  persistently  to  making  the  careful 
distinction  between  what  is  or  was,  and  what  men  believed 
or  he  fancies  might  be.  Usually  the  patient  application 
of  this  discipline  will  cure  such  cases.  ^ 

By  far  the  larger  number  of  children's  lies  spring,  how- 

'  See  a  brief  article  by  President  Hall,  classifying  children's  lies 
under  seven  distinct  heads,  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  I,  pp.  211- 
218. 


THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE     171 

ever,  from  a  different  cause.  The  child^s  play  of  intellect 
develops  in  advance  of  his  consciousness  of  moral  relation- 
ship and  his  love  of  being  true,  that  is,  real.  So  he  tends 
to  use  his  growing  wit  to  get  out  of  unpleasant  situations; 
and  this  tendency  is  greatly  accentuated  by  the  premium 
parents  carelessly  put  on  lying.  The  child  has  been 
allowed  to  go  to  a  neighbor's  with  instructions  to  get  back 
at  five  o'clock,  and  returns  at  half-past  six.  You  ask  why 
he  is  late,  and  he  responds  that  he  forgot,  or  Mrs.  Brown 
did  not  tell  him  at  the  right  time.  Whether  these  state- 
ments are  true  or  false,  they  tend  to  palliate  your  treatment 
of  the  child  and  thus  to  let  him  more  easily  out  of  an  un- 
pleasant situation.  So  the  habit  of  stating  his  case  in  its 
best  possible  light,  making  excuses  that  are  not  quite  true, 
grows  on  him,  until  to  our  grief  we  discover  we  have  a 
case  of  deliberate  and  undoubted  falsehood  on  our  hands.  ^ 
The  problem  is  serious,  but  we  can  easily  take  it  too  seriously. 
It  does  not  mean  total  depravity  nor  does  it  mean  what  a 
deliberate  lie  would  be  for  us.  Some  children  are  saved 
from  this  fault  by  a  kind  of  dogged  hold  on  reality,  others 
by  a  lack  of  clear  foresight  and  care  for  consequences; 
but  just  those  children  who  are  brightest  intellectually, 
unless  this  quality  is  balanced  by  unusual  moral  strength, 
are  the  ones  who  develop  the  fault  in  its  most  obstinate 
form. 

^  "  To  speak  truth  there  must  be  moral  equality  or  else  no  respect ; 
and  hence  between  parent  and  child  intercourse  is  apt  to  degenerate 
into  a  verbal  fencing  bout,  and  misapprehensions  to  become  in- 
grained. And  there  is  another  side  to  this,  for  the  parent  begins  with 
an  imperfect  notion  of  the  child's  character,  formed  in  early  years  or 
during  the  equinoctial  gales  of  youth;  to  this  he  adheres,  noting  only 
the  facts  which  suit  with  his  preconception ;  and  wherever  a  person 
fancies  himself  unjustly  judged,  he  at  once  and  finally  gives  up  the 
effort  to  speak  truth."— Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  VirgimbiLS 
Puerisque,  p.  77. 


172  MORAL   EBUCAtiON 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  ask :  Why  should  the  child  not 
lie  when  that  will  save  him  from  an  uncomfortable  situa- 
tion ?  There  are  just  two  reasons  why  he  should  not :  ( 1 ) 
Lying  is  in  itself  ugly  and  bad,  and  leads  to  the  destruction 
of  one's  power  to  see  and  know  the  truth.  (2)  Lying  is  a  vio- 
lation of  the  moral  relations  we  sustain  to  others,  leads  to 
their  distrust  of  us,  and  in  the  end  makes  living  with  them 
impossible.  Thus  our  problem  in  dealing  with  this  fault 
in  children  is,  not  to  suppress  the  intellectual  activity, 
but  to  direct  it  into  right  channels  and  accelerate  the  bal- 
ancing moral  grow^th.^  There  are  three  phases  of  treat- 
ment we  can  adopt:  (1)  We  must  treat  the  particular  mis- 
iT  deeds  of  the  child  as  less  bad  and  harmful  than  the  deceit 
by  which  he  seeks  to  avoid  their  unpleasant  results,  and 
thus  cease  putting  the  premium  on  lying.^  (2)  We  must 
foster  in  every  possible  way  the  child's  love  of  truth,  that 
is,  his  desire  to  be  real  and  not  a  sham.  (3)  We  must  do  all 
in  our  power  to  waken  him  to  a  recognition  of  the  moral 
relation  he  sustains  to  us  and  to  others,  make  him  realize 
the  meaning  and  consequence  of  breaking  that  relation, 
and  so  develop  his  sense  of  obligation  to  be  true  to  it. 

How  shall  we  do  this  ?  The  principles  we  have  outlined 
are  sufficient  to  establish  conditions  of  good  moral  hygiene 
and  to  indicate  the  general  method  of  treatment;  the  mo- 
ment we  raise  the  question  of  specific  prescription  no  for- 

^  "The  habitual  gratification  of  all  a  child's  wishes  indirectly 
cultivates  mendacit}^  for  truth  requires  a  robust  and  hard}'^  self- 
sacrifice,  which  luxury  makes  impossible." — President  Hall,  Chil- 
dren's Lies,  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  I,  p.  218. 

^  "Above  all  things,  an  invariable  rule  in  moral  education  is  not  to 
throw  a  child  upon  self-defense.  The  movement  towards  defending 
one's  self  and  making  excuses,  is  worse  than  almost  any  act  of  overt 
wrong." — Elizabeth  Palmer  Peabody,  Guide  to  the  Kindergarten^ 
p.  56. 


THE   ADMINISTRATIOX   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE     173 

mula  can  be  given.  We  must  work  with  the  individual 
on  the  basis  of  the  principles  just  outlined.  Sometimes 
we  can  waken  the  child  best  by  persisting  in  trusting  him, 
even  when  he  violates  our  confidence,  thus  seeking  to 
touch  his  more  generous  instincts  and  shame  him  out  of  his 
error.  The  natural  consequence  of  his  fault,  suspicion 
and  distrust  on  our  part,  is  usually  harmful  rather  than 
helpful,  unless  carefully  utilized  to  teach  a  specific  lesson. 
In  rare  cases  it  may  be  wise  to  promise  something  to  the 
child  and  then  deliberately  not  fulfill  the  promise,  thus  en- 
forcing the  lesson  of  what  his  breaking  the  moral  relation- 
ship means,  by  giving  him  a  painful  example  from  our 
side.  This  expedient  is  obviously  very  dangerous,  and 
would  succeed  only  in  a  few  cases  and  where  most  circum- 
spectly carried  out.  With  every  child  erring  in  this  way, 
we  may  seek  to  establish  the  habit  of  truth-speaking  by  in- 
sisting, without  being  a  martinet,  on  exact  statement  in  all 
matters,  intellectual  as  well  as  moral.  One  great  value  of 
natural  science  is  that  it  demands  invariably  exact  state- 
ment; that  is  one  reason  it  has  done  so  much  to  cultivate 
the  religion  of  truth  in  modern  times. ^ 

My  point  is  that  always  a  multitude  of  expedients  is  at 
hand :  our  problem  is  to  select  and  adopt  from  them  those 
that  will  reach  the  individual  case.  Only,  however,  as 
we  foster  the  positive  moral  growth  in  love  of  truth  and 

*  "Habits  of  truthfulness  are  best  cultivated  by  the  use  of  the 
senses  in  exact  observation.  To  see  a  simple  phenomenon  in  nature 
and  report  it  fully  and  correctly  is  no  easy  matter,  but  the  habit  of 
trying  to  do  so  teaches  what  truthfulness  is,  and  leaves  the  impress 
of  truth  upon  the  whole  life  and  character.  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say,  therefore,  that  elements  of  science  should  be  taught  to  children 
for  the  moral  effects  of  its  influence." — President  Hall,  The  Moral 
and  Religious  Training  of  Children  and  Adolescents,  Pedagogical 
Seminary,  vol,  I,  p,  201. 


174  MORAL    EDUCATION 

appreciation  of  human  relationship  can  we  permanently 
conquer  the  fault,  by  excluding  its  possibility. 

Let  us  consider  the  treatment  of  another  characteristic 
vice — suUenness — than  which  none  is  more  blighting  to  the 
individual  nor  mote  destructive  to  the  happiness  of  the 
home.  The  worst  is  that  this  vice  tends  peculiarly  to  feed 
upon  itself.  This  is  true  in  a  measure  of  every  vice,  since 
each  expression  deepens  the  fault;  but  suUenness  shuts 
the  individual  up  within  himself,  and  at  the  same  time 
creates  an  aversion  to  those  about  him,  thus  separating 
him  from  the  best  influence  to  help  him — the  persistent 
kindliness  of  others.  Dante  represents  the  sullen  people 
as  sunk  in  the  mud  of  the  river  of  hell,  ever  '*  gurgling  in 
their  throats : " 

"We  sullen  were 
In  the  sweet  air,  which  by  the  sun  is  gladdened. 
Bearing  within  ourselves  the  sluggish  reek; 
Now  we  are  sullen  in  this  sable  mire."  ^ 

Dante  simply  shows  the  sullen  come  to  consciousness  of 
what  they  are, — people  who  prefer  to  cover  themselves  with 
the  mire  of  Styx  rather  than  to  smile  joyously  in  the  sun- 
shine. 

In  dealing  with  this  exasperating  fault  it  is  evident  that 
its  natural  consequence,  the  expression  of  irritation  and 
disgust  on  the  part  of  those  about  the  erring  person,  serves 
only  to  deepen  the  fault.  What  then  is  to  be  done  ? 
Again  we  can  only  outline  the  general  method  of  treat- 
ment, leaving  its  specific  application  to  be  worked  out  on 
the  basis  of  a  sympathetic  study  of  the  individual.     First 

^  Divine  Comedy,  Longfellow's  translation,  Infer-no,  canto  VII, 


THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE    175 

of  all  we  should  strive  to  waken  the  child  to  the  beauty  of 
cheerfulness  and  the  joy  of  being  helpful  to  others.  Sec- 
ond, we  must  appeal  to  his  ambition  for  self-mastery, 
welcoming  and  encouraging  the  slightest  effort  he  makes  to 
conquer  himself.  Third,  we  should  make  him  see  that 
his  vice  unfits  him  for  living  happily  and  helpfully  with 
others.  Fourth,  there  are  times  when  we  may  send  the 
child  off  alone  to  fight  out  his  problem,  provided  we  can 
win  him  to  accept  this  temporary  isolation  not  as  a  resented 
punishment,  but  as  an  opportunity  for  getting  control  of 
himself.  Lastly,  we  must  express  in  our  conduct  toward 
the  child  the  exact  opposite  of  the  behavior  sullenness 
tends  to  produce  in  those  who  are  annoyed  by  it,  showing 
him  unfailing  courtesy  and  kindliness;  for  the  least  echo 
in  us  of  the  child's  sullenness  adds  fresh  gloom  to  his  mood. 
Rare  indeed  are  the  cases  where  we  may  dare  to  give  the 
strong  purgative  of  our  vigorous  expression  of  annoyance 
at  his  conduct. 

Thus  in  all  application  of  corrective  discipline  our  cen- 
tral aim  must  be  to  waken  the  positive  moral  life  of  the 
child.  His  discouragement  may  be  a  serious  blight,^  as 
the  non-consent  of  his  reason  and  even  the  opposition  of 
his  will  may  be  a  dangerous  obstacle  to  the  good  result  of 
the  punishment.  At  the  same  time  we  must  beware  of 
sugar-coating  our  moral  medicine.  While  the  child's 
courage  and  enthusiasm  are  the  most  helpful  allies  we  can 
enlist,  there  must  be  a  rigid  backbone  in  our  discipline. 
I  have  pointed  out  the  folly  of  trying  to  trick  a  child  into 
obedience :  let  me  emphasize  the  fact  that,  if  often  econom- 


^  "Dejection  which  becomes  habitual  is  consumption  of  the  char- 
acter."—Herb  art,  Science  of  Education,  translated  by  Felkin,  p. 
213. 


176  MORAL   EDUCATION 

ically  helpful,  such  a  procedure  is  usually  morally  worthless. 
As  it  is  well  that  a  child  should  know  that  he  is  obeying  and 
conform  because  it  is  right,  so  it  is  well  that  he  should  recog- 
nize that  he  is  receiving  moral  medicine,  often  bitter  and 
distasteful  to  him,  but  which  is  necessary  to  his  best  life 
and  given  that  he  may  attain  it. 

It  remains  to  say  a  word  about  the  use  of  rewards — the 
most  misunderstood  element  in  the  whole  problem  of  dis- 
cipline. People  speak  of  *  rewards  and  punishments' 
as  if  the  two  terms  were  entirely  correlative;  but  they  are 
not  so.  The  reward  which  in  the  nature  of  things  follows 
good  action, — ^joy  in  the  doing,  the  loving  appreciation  of 
those  who  are  helped  by  the  deed,  the  positive  benefit  of 
the  deed  to  oneself  and  others, — is,  like  food  and  sunshine 
for  the  physical  organism,  a  wonderful  nourisher  and 
quickener  of  the  moral  life.  The  element  of  it  most 
within  our  control  is  the  warm  expression  of  our  love  and 
appreciation  for  every  good  action  on  the  part  of  our  chil- 
dren. This  should  be  given  in  fullest  measure.  Not  only 
do  children  need  it  and  benefit  greatly  by  it,  but  many  an 
adult  life  is  half-starved  spiritually  for  want  of  just  that 
generous  expression  of  appreciation  which  should  be  one 
of  the  most  natural  consequences  of  moral  action  and  en- 
deavor. Nor  is^  there  often  in  this  regard  any  subtle  prob- 
lem of  personal  adjustment  as  in  the  case  of  punishment. 
While  we  must  beware  of  praising  too  openly  the  child 
who  is  rather  consciously  virtuous,  it  is  rare  that  a  human 
being  can  receive  too  much  sunshine  in  either  the  physical 
or  the  moral  life. 

The  specific  and  arbitrary  rewards,  on  the  other  hand, 
which  we  give  children  over  and  above  these  natural 
results  of  their  good  conduct,  are  directly  comparable  to 


THE    ADMINISTRATION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE    177 

physical  stimulants.  It  is  well  known  what  happens  when 
stimulants  are  substituted  for  nourishing  food;  and  if  in 
the  moral  world  the  adventitious  reward  takes,  in  the  child's 
thought,  the  place  of  the  natural  consequences  of  good  action, 
the  result  is  a  flabby,  ill-nourished  character,  unable  to 
stand  erect,  and  craving  an  extra  and  increasing  stimulant 
for  every  action  in  harmony  with  law.^  Thus  there  are 
ample  grounds  for  the  vigorous  modern  reaction  against 
this  sort  of  rewards;  indeed,  that  reaction  is  one  of  the 
most  hopeful  signs  in  present  education.  There  is  no 
reason  why  a  child  should  regularly  be  given  candy  for 
sitting  still,  or  be  promised  a  drive  for  ceasing  to  tease  his 
brother;  nor  is  there  any  reason  why  a  student  should  be 
given  twenty  dollars  for  getting  his  lessons  honestly.  To 
work  merely  for  the  prize  is  like  eating  a  meal  for  the  sake 
of  a  teaspoonful  of  ''Beef,  Wine  and  Iron"  at  the  end. 

Yet  there  are  cases  physically  where  a  good  physician 
would  unhesitatingly  prescribe  a  stimulant  to  rouse  into 
action  some  abnormally  torpid  function.  So  morally,  a 
sluggish  nature  may  need  just  the  stimulus  of  an  appeal 
to  the  instinct  of  emulation  and  rivalry,  which  has  a  sound 
value  in  human  life  when  rightly  expressed  and  duly  subor- 
dinated to  higher  motives.  Thus  even  prizes  may  have  a 
place,  though  a  small  one;  and  we  should  allow  neither 
the  frequent  abuse  of  them  nor  the  modern  reaction  against 

1  "No  less  detrimental  to  the  attainment  of  human  life  is  the  pre- 
dominance frequently  given  in  religious  instruction  to  the  promise 
of  reward  for  good  deeds  in  a  future  life,  if  they  seem  to  go  unre- 
warded in  this  life.  Brutal  minds  who  hold  sensual  pleasure  highest 
are  not  affected  by  this-,  boys  and  human  beings  generally,  with  a 
normally  good  disposition,  do  not  need  it.  For,  if  our  life  is  pure,  if 
our  actions  are  right  and  good,  no  reward  in  a  future  world  is  needed, 
even  though  in  this  world  all  may  be  lacking  that  seems  valuable  to 
the  sensual  man."— Froebel,  The  Education  of  Man,  translated  by 
Hailmann,  p.  244, 


178  MORAL   EDUCATION 

their  use  to  obscure  for  us  their  occasional  therapeutic 
value.  To  have  this  value  they  must  be  given  cs  rarely 
and  carefully  as  a  physician  prescribes  a  physical  stimulant, 
and  we  must  never  let  them  be  substituted  for  the  real 
nourishment  of  the  moral  life.  Moreover,  their  use  is 
helpful,  not  when  they  are  given  for  superior  natural  en- 
dowments, but  when  they  are  used  to  stimulate  sincere 
effort.  With  these  restrictions,  it  is  possible  to  make  them 
a  temporarily  helpful  if  an  altogether  subordinate  element 
in  furthering  moral  growth. 

I  have  spoken,  in  previous  chapters,  of  the  danger  of 
over-regulation  of  child  life:  nowhere  is  that  danger 
greater  than  in  the  whole  problem  of  administering  cor- 
rective discipline.  It  is  always  true  that  too  much  medi- 
cine is  worse  than  none  at  all.  In  moral  discipline  nagging 
is  worse  than  futile,  and  the  ceaseless  commands  of  a  mar- 
tinet lose  all  effectiveness.^  Thus  we  must  learn  to  dis- 
tinguish between  what  is  essential  and  what  is  not.  It  is 
fatal  to  take  everything  a  child  does  on  the  same  plane  of 
seriousness;  and  a  sense  of  humor,  which  enables  us  to 
regard  as  amusing  childish  incongruities,  what  otherwise 

^  "Are  not  the  constant,  and  often  quite  needless,  thwartings  that 
the  young  experience — the  injunctions  to  sit  still,  which  an  active 
child  cannot  obey  without  suffering  great  nervous  irritation,  the 
commands  not  to  look  out  of  the  window  when  traveling  by  railway, 
which  on  a  child  of  any  intelligence  entails  serious  deprivation — are 
not  these  thwartings,  we  ask,  signs  of  aterrible  lack  of  sympathy?" — 
Spencer,  Education,  p.  168. 

"Parents  should  use  consideration  in  their  commands.  If  a 
child  is  absorbed  in  an  occupation,  the  mother  might  well  think 
twice  before  she  asks  him  to  leave  it  to  get  her  a  glass  of  water. 
Should  he  not  hear  her  voice  at  once,  this  is  a  good  sign,  not  a  bad 
one.  The  quality  of  attention  to  the  work  on  hand,  that  concentra- 
tion which  forgets  all  outside  distractions,  is  a  most  desirable  trait 
and  should  be  encouraged." — Susan  Chenery,  As  the  Twig  is  Bent, 
p.  35, 


THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE    179 

we  should  treat  as  annoying  faults,  is  indispensable  to  the 
wise  control  of  children.  One  value  of  sending  the  child 
away  from  home  for  a  time  is  that  we  thereby  gain  per- 
spective with  reference  to  his  faults,  and  so  can  concentrate 
our  energies  on  helping  him  over  those  which  are  really 
important.  Some  measure  of  vigorous  expression  must 
be  allowed  children  even  when  it  is  awkward  and  annoying. 

This  principle  is  the  more  important  since  so  many  of 
the  faults  of  children  belong  to  stages  of  their  development 
and  are  wholly  or  in  part  outgrown  after  a  time.  Take  for 
instance  the  exasperating  tendency  to  tease  younger  chil- 
dren which  develops  in  nearly  every  child  at  some  period 
of  his  life.  This  offensive  disease  passes  much  like 
measles  or  whooping-cough,  and  many  a  brother  and  sister 
who  have  it  in  severe  form  are  afterwards  tenderly  devoted 
to  each  other.  We  should,  nevertheless,  not  neglect  these 
more  transient  faults;  if  we  do  they  are  apt  to  leave  per- 
manent evil  effects  in  the  moral  life  of  the  individual. 
The  need  is  that  we  should  recognize  that  the  fault  is 
characteristic  of  a  phase  of  growth  and  treat  it  as  such, 
not  as  a  permanent  perversion  of  the  child's  spirit. 

Even  wise  restraint  and  correction  should  never  occupy 
the  chief  place  in  the  relation  of  the  parent  or  the  teacher 
to  the  child.  If  a  father  sees  his  children  little  except  at 
meal-times  he  would  better  let  many  a  fault  in  table-man- 
ners go  uncorrected  rather  than  give  his  children  the 
notion  that  his  main  function  is  to  reprove  them.  The 
wisest  self-restraint  is  necessary  in  all  expression  of  au- 
thority in  corrective  discipline.^ 

^  "Do  not  educate  too  much;  refrain  from  all  avoidable  application 
of  that  power  by  which  the  teacher  bends  his  pupils  this  way  and 
that,  dominates  their  dispositions,  and  destroys  their  cheerfulness." 
— Herbart,  The  Science  of  £'duca^toM,  translated  by  Felkin,  p.  106. 


180  MORAL   EDUCATION 

Thus  the  problem  of  corrective  discipline  is  one  of  fine 
proportion;  clear  as  are  the  great  principles  involved, 
their  wise  application  is  possible  only  on  the  basis  of  a 
careful  and  sympathetic  study  of  each  child.  We  must 
seek  to  understand  his  peculiar  tendencies  and  character- 
istics, the  phase  of  development  through  which  he  is  pass- 
ing, and  every  disturbing  factor  that  influences  his  reaction. 
Especially  must  we  rfecognize  the  intimate  relation  of  mind 
and  body  and  the  immediate  effect  of  any  physical  disturb- 
ance on  conduct.  Nervousness  tends  to  irritability  and 
mischievousness;  physical  depression  gives  a  gloomy  and 
irresponsive  mental  attitude;  indigestion  makes  the  child 
peevish :  thus  every  physical  condition  is  a  modifying  ele- 
ment in  behavior.  To  be  sure,  the  child  needs  to  learn 
to  control  himself  even  under  physical  illness;  but  we  who 
seek  to  give  him  moral  medicine  must  recognize  every 
factor  in  his  disease.  We  must  learn  to  utilize  physical 
training  in  the  discipline  for  moral  uprightness,  bodily 
cleanliness  as  an  influence  for  personal  purity. 

As  the  child  is  then  a  unity,  so  must  be  the  treatment  he 
receives.  We  have  been  considering  in  turn  different 
means  of  moral  education,  we  must  see  that,  after  all,  the 
practical  value  of  each  one  depends  upon  its  relation  to  all 
the  rest.  Every  detail  of  discipline  must  be  interpreted 
in  terms  of  the  entire  circle  of  treatment  the  child  receives. 
That  is  why  full  and  unvarying  cooperation  with  each 
other,  on  the  part  of  all  who  are  dealing  with  the  prob- 
lem of  the  child's  culture,  is  so  indispensable.  If  the 
mother's  decision  is  reversed  by  the  father,  family  dis- 
cipline becomes  a  farce.  If  the  child  plays  teacher  and 
parent  off  against  each  other,  receiving  sympathy  from  one 
for  the  punishment  given  by  the  other,  the  result  is  con- 


THE   ADMIXISTRATION   OF   CORRECTIVE   DISCIPLINE    181 

tempt  for  all  authority.  How  discipline  is  paralyzed 
by  the  mutual  suspicions  of  parents  and  teachers,  each 
regarding  the  other  as  a  kind  of  natural  enemy  and  resent- 
ing any  effort  at  inquiry  and  assistance  as  an  intrusion  into 
his  own  sphere!  Frequent  meeting  togetlier  on  the  part 
of  all  who  share  in  the  control  of  the  children,  with  full, 
frank,  trusting  cooperation,  is  the  necessary  basis  of  all 
helpful  discipline.^  The  physician  of  the  body  and  the 
physician  of  the  soul  may  well  be  invited  to  join  with  those 
who,  whether  parents  or  teachers,  must  be  both  in  one. 

The  needed  cooperation  must  involve  on  the  parents' 
part  the  concession  of  some  measure  of  real  authority  to 
the  teacher  and  the  withholding  of  any  interference  w^ith  the 
authority  conceded.  There  must  be  real  authority,  in 
order  to  gain  the  child's  respect  and  make  the  discipline 
effective  in  educating  him  to  obedience  to  law.  The 
withdrawal  of  real  authority  from  teachers  in  certain 
highlv  cultivated  communities  has  led  to  much  of  the  ad- 
ventitious  'managing'  which  we  have  found  to  be  so 
harmful  morally.  To  concede  authority  to  the  average 
teacher  involves  risks,  I  know;  but  little  good  can  come 
unless  we  are  -v^dlling  to  risk  something;  and  think  of  the 
measure  of  authority  the  order  of  life  concedes  to  the  aver- 
age parent!  If  Nature  has  dared  to  trust  us  so  fully, 
surely  we  owe  some  measure  of  the  same  trust  to  those  who 
are  fellow-workers  with  us  in  the  moral  culture  of  our 
children. 


1  Harriet  A.  Marsh,  in  A  New  Aspect  of  Child  Study ,  Pedagogic- 
al Seminary,  vol.  V,  pp.  136-145,  describes  a  typical  and  successful 
experiment  in  bringing  mothers  and  teachers  together  to  discuss 
their  common  interests. 


XVII 

PERSONAL    INFLUENCE     OF     PARENT    AND 

TEACHER   IN  THE   GOVERNMENT 

OF    CHILDREN 

We  have  now  considered  the  various  aspects  of  the 
problem  of  government  in  home  and  school.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  recognize  further  that  the  personal  character  of 
those  exercising  the  control  will  be  the  power  behind  all 
others  in  determining  its  moral  effect  upon  the  children 
governed.  Personal  influence  remains  a  great  force 
throughout  human  life;  but  it  is  far  more  powerful  with 
children  than  with  adults,  not  only  because  of  the  well- 
known  imitative  tendency  of  children,  but  because  the 
child's  world  is  distinctly  a  personal  world.  The  activities 
of  nature  and  the  order  of  human  society  are  alike  con- 
ceived by  him  in  terms  of  the  personal  will  and  desire  he  is 
conscious  of  within  himself.  Thus  the  parent  and  the 
teacher,  who  mediate  between  the  child  and  the  universe 
of  law,  have  an  opportunity  to  give  the  crowning  influence 
for  moral  education. 

Moreover,  the  control  of  children  is  much  more  personal 
than  is  government  in  adult  society.  It  is  true  the  element 
of  personality  enters  also  into  government  in  the  state. 
The  safety  and  progress  of  any  society  must  depend  in  part 
upon  securing  men  and  women  of  earnest  and  true  character 
to  exercise  the  various  governmental  functions.     Yet  in  the 


PERSONAL  INFLUENCE  OF  PARENT  AND  TEACHER  183 

state  we  have  a  constitution  and  a  definite  body  of  law; 
while  in  the  home  and  the  school,  within  loose  limits,  it  is 
only  the  conscience  of  the  one  in  authority  that  can  guide 
his  action.  Moreover,  in  the  state  we  carefully  separate 
the  three  functions  of  government,  at  least  in  theory,  and 
make  one  a  check  upon  the  others.  We  would  not  dare 
to  trust  even  a  Washington  or  a  Lincoln  with  the  per- 
manent exercise  of  all  three  functions  of  government; 
yet  in  the  home  and  the  school  these  are  united  in  a  single 
person.  It  is  true,  the  individual  teacher  is  limited  by  the 
principal,  superintendent,  school  board,  and  by  the  law 
of  the  community,  while  much  more  vaguely  the  parent  is 
subject  to  the  restraint  of  law  and  public  opinion.  Still, 
in  all  the  ordinary  affairs  of  school  and  home  life,  the  par- 
ent and  the  teacher  exercise  all  three  functions  of  govern- 
ment: laying  down  the  law  for  the  child,  deciding  when 
it  is  obeyed  or  disobeyed,  and  executing  it  over  him. 
Thus  paternalism,  which  we  question  in  the  state,  has  un- 
doubtedly its  place  in  the  government  of  children.  More- 
over, in  home  and  school,  the  one  holding  authority  is  often 
at  once  judge  and  aggrieved  party,  so  that  great  love  and 
care  are  demanded  if  power  is  to  be  used  solely  for  the  good 
of  the  child.  Thus,  in  all  the  little  elements  of  home  and 
school  the  parent  and  the  teacher  can  influence  children 
for  good  or  evil  to  a  degree  not  equaled  in  any  of  the  rela- 
tions of  mature  life. 

There  are  striking  differences  in  the  equipment  of  teach- 
ers and  parents  respectively  for  this  difficult  task.  We 
complain  justly  of  the  inefficiency  of  our  teaching  force 
today.  We  have  not  begun  to  educate  and  select  our 
teachers  as  we  shall  when  we  pay,  as  President  Eliot  wisely 
insists  we  must,  four  or  five  times  as  much  for  our  public 


184  MORAL  EDUCATION 

schools  as  we  do  now.^  Meantime,  even  today  teachers 
are  a  highly  selected  class  in  the  community.  They  re- 
ceive a  degree  of  both  liberal  and  special  culture  far  above 
the  average  of  their  fellow-citizens;  and  there  is  no  class, 
not  excepting  the  ministry,  more  consecrated  to* its  mission. 
On  the  other  hand,  almost  any  kind  of  a  human  being, 
even  a  physically  and  morally  diseased  o-ne,  is  apt  to  feel 
that  he  has  a  perfect  right  to  be  a  parent  if  he»wishes.  The 
way  public  conscience  on  this  problem  halts  behind  its 
general  development  is  really  amazing.  The-most  power- 
ful of  all  single  influences  v/e  can  exert  is  that  of  direct 
heredity;  yet  we  leave  its  action  to  chance  and  personal 
choice,  while  carefully  restraining  the  individual  in  his 
treatment  of  the  child  after  it  has  appeared  upon  this  scene. 
I  realize  that  I  am  repeating  a  very  old  complaint;  and  the 
reason  we  are  slow  to  act  upon  it  is  partly  that  the  action 
of  heredity  is  so  mysterious  and  unaccountable.  More- 
over, heredity  is  not  the  grim  ogre  it  seemed  in  the  Elsie 
Vernier^  days  when  the  great  applications  of  biological 
discoveries  to  humanity  were  first  made.  We  know  that 
the  influences  of  envirbnment  and  education  can  modify 
the  stuff  of  humanity,  physically,  mentally  and  morally,  in 
simply  a  marvelous  degree.  Still,  these  forces  can  work 
only  with  the  material  given  by  heredity;  and  where  the 
chances  are  large  that  the  offspring  will  be  feeble-minded 
or  insane,  if  the  individual  is  not  moral  enough  to  refrain 
from  reproducing  himself,  it  would  seem  that  society  as  a 

^  Compare  the  admirable  addresses  by  President  Eliot  in  More 
Money  for  the  Public  Schools. 

^  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes's  novel  of  that  name  is  an  interesting 
illustration  of  the  older  theory  of  heredity  from  which,  happily, 
science  has  receded. 


PERSONAL  INFLUENCE  OF  PARENT  AND  TEACHER  185 

whole  should  restrain  his  freedom  of  action.^  I  take  the 
extreme  case  for  illustration :  what  is  needed  is  an  awaken- 
ing of  conscience,  both  individual  and  public,  in  reference 
to  the  problem. 

Not  less  necessary  is  an  awakening  of  conscience  in 
reference  to  the  vocation  of  parenthood.  Certainly  that 
office  demands  as  much  preparation  as  the  profession  of 
teaching;  yet  how  heedlessly  we  undertake  it.  There  is 
some  recent  progress  toward  better  preparation,  it  is  true. 
Mothers  are  beginning  to  see  that  their  vocation  requires 
a  considerable  measure  of  both  liberal  and  special  train- 
ing. Mothers'  clubs  are  helping  to  develop  this  more 
earnest  attitude.  On  the  other  hand,  the  profession  of 
fatherhood  (even  the  phrase  sounds  strange)  is  practically 
undiscovered.  Most  fathers  feel  that  they  have  done  quite 
well  by  their  children  if  they  have  won  for  them  the  measure 
and  kind  of  food,  clothing  and  shelter  demanded  by  the 
social  standard  of  their  group.  Men  are  under  a  terrible 
economic  pressure,  it  is  true.  The  tension  of  the  industrial 
struggle  has  never  been  so  severe  for  all  classes  as  it  is  in 
our  America  today.  Yet  what  fathers  need  to  understand 
is  that  food,  clothing  and  shelter,  luxurious  or  simple,  can 
never  compensate  to  the  child  for  loss  of  the  father's  com- 
panionship; that  it  \^ould  be  better  for  the  child  to  get  on 
with  less  material  comfort  and  even  suffer  some  physical 

*  An  astonishing  bit  of  data  was  recently  given  me  by  the  principal 
of  a  school  for  the  feeble-minded:  he  said  that  one  of  his  difficult 
administrative  problems  arose  from  the  frequent  desire  of  attendants 
to  marry  inmates  of  the  institution.  He  cited  a  case  that  had  just 
occurred,  where  a  nurse  had  written  the  parents  of  a  feeble-minded 
ward  asking  them  to  have  their  son  sent  home  that  she  might  marry 
him.  Of  course  she  was  discharged,  but  she  succeeded  in  marrying 
the  youth.  A  physician  who  was  present  when  the  incident  waa 
narrated  remarked  grimly,  "Well,  at  least  she  will  know  how  to  take 
care  of  her  children  !'>*'' 


..'• 


186  MORAL   EDUCATION 

hardship,  if  by  so  doing  he  could  have  some  direct  contact 
each  day  with  his  father,  when  the  latter's  helpful  influ- 
ence might  be  exercised  over  him.  It  is  interesting  that 
often  fathers  with  some  margin  of  economic  success  are  the 
most  careless,  while  one  of  the  compensating  elements  in 
the  life  of  the  poor  is  the  frequent  close  family  companion- 
ship. 

It  jhould  never  be  forgotten,  however,  that  the  parental 
instinct,  while  it  does  not  usually  awaken  in  time  to  give  the 
best  preparation  for  the  vocation  of  parenthood,  is  a  tre- 
mendous force  driving  the  parent  to  the  fulfillment  of  his 
task  when  it  has  come  to  him.  If  a  teacher  is  usually  far 
better  trained  for  his  profession  than  a  parent,  he  can  only 
stand  in  silent  awe  before  the  infinite  patience,  tenderness 
and  self-forgetfulness  a  mother  characteristically  shows. 
The  peculiar  intimacy  of  the  bond  between  parent  and 
child,  a  bond  established  in  the  most  fundamental  instincts 
of  the  organism,  brings  to  the  fulfillment  of  the  parental 
function  an  amount  of  loving  care  and  devotion  unmatched 
elsewhere  in  human  life.^  That  is  why  almost  any  kind 
of  a  home  is  better  for  children  than  any  kind  of  a 
"Home."  Philanthropical  societies  for  the  protection 
of  children  have  done  good  work  in  removing  children 
from  homes  that  have  become  so  degraded,  such  a  travesty 
on  the  word,  that  the  children's  physical  as  well  as  moral 

^  "  Another  thing  makes  moral  education,  according  to  Froebel's 
view,  especially  a  home  task,  and  it  is  that  with  young  children 
education  works  so  directly  through  feeling.  It  is  parental  love  that 
gives  the  moral  influence,  apart  from  and  adding  to  parental  au- 
thority, on  which  so  much  of  the  right  cultivation  of  feeling  and 
motive  and  conduct  depend.  The  teacher  can  only  follow  afar  in 
the  track  of  those  parents  who  understand  and  are  fit  for  their  holy 
office." — Emily  A.  E.  Shirreff,  ikfora^  Training:  Froebel  and  Herbert 
Spencer,  p.  7. 


PERSONAL   INFLUENCE   OF   PARENT   AND   TEACHER     187 

life  is  endangered ;  but  well-meaning  societies  often  err  on 
the  side  of  over-interference.  It  is  doubtful  if  a  single  grave 
moral  fault  in  the  parent  is  as  harmful  as  the  deadening 
hand  of  an  institution;^  and  certainly  economic  failure 
under  industrial  conditions  like  ours  is  never  enough  to 
justify  the  enforced  breaking  of  "the  bond  that  Nature 
makes."  Protect  children  in  every  possible  way,  but, 
except  as  a  last  extreme  measure  when  all  others  have 
failed,  do  not  disrupt  the  home  and  so  abrogate  the  one 
supreme  influence  in  molding  a  strong  human  character. 

Thus  there  are  striking  inequalities  in  the  fitness  of 
parents  and  teachers  for  the  performance  of  their  respective 
functions.  On  the  one  hand,  at  least  half  the  burden  under 
which  the  public  school  struggles  today  is  work  that  should 
have  been  done  in  the  home  and  has  not  been  accomplished 
there.  On  the  other  hand,  the  better  training  of  the  teacher 
gives  him  frequently  an  arrogance  leading  him  to  disdain 
the  judgment  of  the  parent,  which,  less  intellectual,  is 
based  upon  long-continued  physical  and  moral  intimacy 
with  the  child.  Meantime,  both  parents  and  teachers 
are  engaged  not  merely  in  a  profession,  but  in  a  mission 
to  save  childhood — to  save  by  calling  forth  and  developing 
the  best  implicit  life.  It  is  no  excuse  for  one  that  another's 
task  is  unfinished  or  mismanaged.  Our  business  is  not  to 
fill  an  economic  measure:  each  one  who  is  alive  to  the 
need  must  do  his  own  work  and  as  much  of  the  unfinished 
work  of  others  as  possible.  Since  so  large  a  part  of  all  the 
personal  influence  to  which  children  are  subjected  is  acci- 
dental  and  often    harmful,  there    is   the  more  need  for 

*  Compare  Father  Huntington's  searching  analysis  of  the  evils  of 
institutional  life  for  children  in  pp.  171-182  of  Philanthropy  and 
Social  Progress,  by  Jane  Addams,  et  at. 


188  MORAL   EDUCATION 

consecration  on  the  part  of  the  parents  and  teachers  who 
are  awake. 

As  the  child  needs  the  influence  of  both  father  and 
mother,  so  he  needs  the  influence  of  both  men  and  women 
teachers.  One  of  the  gravest  problems  of  our  public 
system  of  education  is  the  almost  complete  exclusion  of 
men  from  teaching  positions  below  the  high  school.  The 
reasons  for  this  movement  are  economic  and  evident;  but 
children  need  contact  with  teachers  of  both  sexes  in  order 
to  develop  the  most  rounded  and  healthy  moral  life.  We 
must  waken  public  sentiment  that  will  enable  us  to  pay 
whatever  is  necessary,  in  money  and  otherwise,  to  secure 
men  teachers  as  well  as  women  in  all  the  process  of  educa- 
tion. 

It  is  what  the  parent  or  teacher  is,  not  what  he  pre- 
tends to  be,  that  influences  children.  We  hear  it  said  that 
^  parents  and  teachers  should  be  models  to  their  children: 
nothing  can  be  more  disastrous  than  to  attempt  that.  Few 
if  any  of  us  are  worthy  to  be  models,  and  to  try  to  stand  as 
such  is  to  think  more  and  more  about  how  we  appear^  and 
less  and  less  about  what  we  are — which  is  the  highroad 
to  hypocrisy.  What  we  need  is  not  to  pretend  the  virtues 
necessary  to  helpful  influence  over  children,  but  to  struggle 
toward  those  virtues  with  all  our  might. 

We  can  easily  discover  the  needed  elements  of  character 
by  asking  what  virtues  make  the  personality  of  the  head 
of  the  state  helpful  to  all  the  citizens.  What,  for  instance, 
were  the  qualities  that  made  the  character  of  Lincoln  so 
uplifting  to  every  American  citizen  who  understood  him 
and  sympathized  with  his  aims?  They  were:  first,  sin- 
cerity— intense,  even  sombre  sincerity;  second,  uncom- 
promising justice;    third,  love  or  humanity,  that    is,   a 


PERSONAL   INFLUENCE   OF   PARENT   AND   TEACHER     189 

loving  of  the  best  for  all.  We  cannot  love  all  people  in 
a  personal  way,  but  it  is  possible  to  love  and  desire  the  best 
for  each  one ;  and  such  a  love  was  the  crowning  element  in 
the  character  of  Lincoln.  It  was  these  three  virtues  that 
gave  moral  power  to  Lincoln's  personality,  winning  him 
the  lasting  reverence  of  those  who  misunderstood  and 
opposed,  as  well  as  those  who  followed  him.  It  is  just 
these  three  virtues  that  are  so  necessary  in  the  character 
of  the  parent  and  the  teacher  if  our  government  of  children 
is  to  be  morally  helpful,  only  we  must  multiply  many  times 
their  importance  in  an  executive  of  the  state  to  realize 
their  power  in  the  home  and  the  school. 

Of  these  virtues,  sincerity  is  the  most  fundamental,  since 
it  is  the  very  basis  of  character.  Indeed,  one's  sincerity 
is  simply  the  measure  of  one's  moral  reality.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  this  quality  in  all  our 
relation  to  children.  They  are  far  more  sensitive  to  sin- 
cerity or  its  absence  than  are  we,  owing  to  the  measure  of 
habitual  lying  present  in  our  business  and  social  life.  It  is 
not  a  very  dark  kind  of  lying,  this  that  we  practise  in  saying 
what  we  do  not  mean — both  speaker  and  listener  are 
vaguely  aware  of  the  falsehood — but  its  cumulative  result 
is  to  dull  the  edge  of  our  instinct  for  truth.  Thus  we  tend 
to  lose  something  of  our  power  to  distinguish  between  the 
real  and  the  unreal.  Children  have  not  yet  come  into  the 
world  where  good  manners  and  business  success  are  sup- 
posed to  demand  habitual  untruthfulness.  Their  lies  fall 
into  another  category,  and  they  are  even  annoyingly 
frank  in  expressing  just  what  they  feel.  It  is  therefore 
they  are  so  keenly  sensitive  to  moral  reality.  They  may 
not  know  why  they  dislike  a  certain  teacher,  but  they  are 
repelled  by  insincerity;  they  may  not  understand  what 


190  MORAL   EDUCATION 

draws  them  to  this  other,  but  a  real  human  being,  who 
means  something,  always  attracts  them. 

I  suppose  we  recognize  this  sufiiciently  in  purely  intellec- 
tual matters.  The  parent  does  not  hesitate  to  confess  his 
ignorance  when  the  child  questions  him.  This  is  more 
difficult  for  the  teacher,  since  to  know  is  his  business.  It 
is  hard  to  stand  up  before  a  class  and  say  "The  answer  I 
gave  10  the  problem  in  arithmetic  yesterday  was  wrong," 
or,  "I  was  mistaken  in  the  date  I  gave  in  the  history  lesson;" 
yet,  if  the  mistake  has  been  made  surely  every  wise  teacher 
recognizes  that  honest  confession  is  the  only  safe  way  out. 
Of  course,  if  the  teacher  has  not  the  background  of  larger 
knowledge  necessary  to  his  work,  and  continues  to  acknowl- 
edge his  mistakes,  in  the  end  he  loses  his  position.  But  in 
such  a  situation  this  is  just  what  is  best  for  the  teacher  as 
well  as  for  the  children.  It  is  ruinous  to  try  to  continue 
in  a  position  one  is  hopelessly  unfitted  to  fill.  One  can 
keep  hold  only  by  using  something  else  than  character  and 
intelligence;  and  when  it  comes  to  a  question  of  losing 
one's  situation  or  losing  one's  soul  no  sensible  person  would 
hesitate  long  at  the  choice. 

Unfortunately  the  identical  application  of  the  principle 
to  the  moral  world  is  not  so  clearly  seen.  If  a  parent  has 
punished  a  child  unjustly  it  is  hard  to  say  ''My  child,!  did 
wrong,  and  I  am  sorry  for  it;"  yet  if  the  mistake  has  been 
made  is  there  any  other  safe  way  out?  "Oh!"  it  is  ex- 
claimed, "if  we  apologize  to  our  children,  they  will  lose 
their  respect  for  us."  Now,  it  may  well  be  questioned 
why  we  should  demand  that  our  children  reverence  us; 
but  aside  from  that,  is  it  true  that  a  frank  apology  will 
lessen  the  child's  real  respect  for  us?  Let  me  give  an 
illustration;  I  remember  speaking  severely  to  a  five-year- 


PERSONAL  INFLUENCE  OF  PARENT  AND  TEACHER  191 

old  child  who  was  misbehaving  at  the  table.  She  answered 
quite  discourteously.  On  being  asked  why  she  had  spoken 
so,  she  said:  "Oh,  I  only  wanted  to  show  you  the  tone  of 
voice  you  used! "  Impudent,  of  course;  and  we  have  seen 
how  necessary  it  is  to  the  child's  welfare  that  we  should 
suppress  his  impudence.  Yet  in  the  case  in  question  I  had 
done  wrong;  and  the  child,  recognizing  the  fact,  seized, 
with  the  quick  wit  children  often  show  in  emergencies, 
upon  the  easiest  way  to  divert  attention  and  escape  from 
an  unpleasant  situation. 

Sup{X)se  one  were  to  use  one's  force  of  moral  and  physical 
personality  and  simply  suppress  the  child:  the  child  is 
silenced  but  despises  the  parent  who  had  to  resort  to  his 
superior  size.  Suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  the  parent  ac- 
knowledges his  fault  and  apologizes  for  it:  when  he  turns 
to  the  further  question  of  the  child's  impudence  his  hands 
are  strengthened.  He  meets  the  child  on  the  plane  of 
moral  equaUty  in  reference  to  right  action,  the  only  plane 
on  which  any  moral  q'uestion  can  be  solved.  The  child 
straightens  up;  it  is  no  longer  five  years  old  or  three  feet 
high,  but  a  human  spirit  to  whom  you  have  said — by  your 
action,  not  in  words — *'My  child,  I  see  in  you  a  spirit 
entrusted  through  some  mystery  of  the  universe  for  a  little 
time  to  my  care,  and  I  recognize  it  as  my  earnest  duty  to 
give  you  whatever  treatment  will  help  you  out  into  the 
sanest  and  sweetest  life." 

It  is  in  the  latter  case  that  the  real  respect  of  the  child  is 
kept, — not  the  notion  of  our  supposed  infallibility,  sure  to  be 
shattered  sooner  or  later,  but  the  reverence  that  comes 
from  seeing  more  and  more  clearly  that,  through  all  our 
mistakes,  we  have  been  striving,  not  for  our  ease  or  com- 
fort, but  for  the  child's  welfare.     To  try  to  keep  in  the 


192  MORAL    EDUCATION 

child's  mind  a  notion  of  our  infallibility  is  dangerous  in  the 
extreme.  We  are  not  infallible,  and  the  child  must  dis- 
cover the  fact  sooner  or  later.  To  make*  the  discovery 
suddenly  in  the  period  of  transition  to  young  manhood 
and  womanhood  often  gives  a  moral  shock  that  does  per- 
manent harm.  It  is  our  business  to  save  the  child  from 
such  shocks.  Moreover,  it  is  not  our  imperfect,  blunder- 
ing personality  we  should  wish  the  child  to  reverence,  but 
the  order  of  the  universe  we  are  striving  to  interpret  to 
him,  those 

"Unwritten  laws  of  God  that  know  not  change. 
They  are  not  of  today  nor  yesterday, 
But  live  forever,  nor  can  man  assign 
When  first  they  sprang  to  being."  ^ 

The  earlier  the  child's  respect  can  pass  from  us  to  those 
unvarying  laws,  the  better  for  both,  and  the  more  surely 
will  the  deeper  reverence  for  the  parent's  sincerity  of  aim 
and  effort  be  retained  into  mature  life. 

Thus  the  adult  deserves  respect,  not  as  an  arbitrary 
authority,  but  as  a  mediator:  to  secure  the  child's  rever- 
ence for  law  the  parent  himself  must  be  lav/-abiding. 
Froebel  recognized  clearly  this  common  subserviency  of 
adult  and  child  to  the  law  ruling  over  both,  and  stated  it 
finely  in  a  passage  of  The  Education  oj  Man  (Hailmarin's 
translation,  pages  14-15): 

"Between  the  two,  between  educator  and  pupil,  be- 
tween request  and  obedience,  there  should  invisibly  rule  a 
third  something,  to  which  educator  and  pupil  are  equally 
subject.     This  third  something  is  the  right,  the  best,  neces- 

■""■        ■         ■■         ■- .-11—       I  ..     -  I  .--.—  ■-■■■■■.■     ■■.■■■II   — ^^^ 

^  Sophocles,  Antigone,  Plumptre's  translation. 


PERSONAL  INFLUENCE  OF  PARENT  AND  TEACHER  193 

sarily  conditioned  and  expressed  without  arbitrariness  in 
the  circumstances.  The  calm  recognition,  the  clear 
knowledge,  and  the  serene,  cheerful  obedience  to  the  rule 
of  this  third  something  is  the  particular  feature  that  should 
be  constantly  and  clearly  manifest  in  the  bearing  and  con- 
duct of  the  educator  and  teacher,  and  often  firmly  and 
sternly  emphasized  by  him.  The  child,  the  pupil,  has  a 
very  keen  feeling,  a  very  clear  apprehension,  and  rarely 
fails  to  distinguish,  whether  what  the  educator,  the  teacher, 
or  the  father  says  or  requests  is  personal  or  arbitrary,  or 
whether  it  is  expressed  by  him  as  a  general  law  and  neces- 
sity." 

Thus  there  can  be  no  helpful  control  of  children  without 
entire  sincerity  in  the  parent  and  teacher.  Not  only  can  we 
afford  to  risk  frankness  and  truth  in  our  government 
of  children :  anything  but  sincerity  is  a  sure  road  to  moral 
disaster. 

As  children  are  more  sensitive  to  moral  reality  than  we 
are,  so  they  feel  more  keenly  justice  and  injustice;  and  for 
a  similar  reason.  As  adults  we  live  in  a  world  involving 
some  measure  of  moral  compromise.  The  ideals  we  start 
with  in  life  are  difficult  to  harness  in  the  world's  work. 
We  make  concessions  to  expediency  here,  and  compromise 
with  conditions  there,  until  the  middle-aged  man  wakens 
to  wonder  where  his  ideals  have  gone.  Whether  such  com- 
promise is  ever  admissible,  or  always  wrong,  is  a  question 
I  cannot  undertake  here;  its  presence  as  an  almost  uni- 
versal fact  of  human  life  must  be  acknowledged.  Children 
have  not  yet  come  into  this  world  of  moral  compromise; 
they  have  no  baffling  experience  to  give  them  a  philosophy 
of  expediency,  and  thus  in  so  far  a«>  they  think  at  all  they 
are  u-ncompromising  rationalists,  seeing  the  pure  law  and 


194  MORAL   EDUCATION 

applying  it  with  no  consciousness  of  possible  exceptions.* 
Many  a  father  has  been  shamed  out  of  some  dishonorable 
action  by  his  child's  simple  assumption  that  if  you  think 
a  certain  deed  is  right,  of  course  you  will  do  it.  All  re- 
formers who  have  held  to  the  absoluteness  of  the  moral 
law  have  been  simply  grown  up  children,  men  and  women 
who  have  kept  the  child's  moral  rationalism.^ 

Therefore  little  actions  of  justice  and  injustice  make  a 
far  deeper  impression  on  children  than  on  older  people. 
We  must  struggle  to  be  scrupulously  and  patiently  just  in 
all  personal  discipline.  Any  element  of  favoritism  or  un- 
fairness will  be  a  sad  obstacle  to  all  that  we  are  trying  to  do 
for  the  child's  moral  culture.  However,  let  us  ask  what 
we  mean  by  justice.  We  continue  to  hire  sculptors  to  make 
statues  of  a  blindfolded  goddess  with  scales  in  her  hand, 
which  we  erect  on  our  court-houses  and  in  our  public 
squares.  We  demand  that  Justice  shall  be  "no  respecter 
of  persons,"  weighing  deeds  objectively  without  t(  --ence 
to  the  personality.  Is  that  the  conception  of  justice  we 
need  in  relation  to  our  children?  I  think  not.  Ob- 
viously, what  we  mean  by  our  insistence  that  Justice  shall 
be  no  respecter  of  persons,  is  that  all  human  beings  should 
be  equal  before  the  law,  that  adventitious  elements  such 
as  clothes,  money,  family,  social  and  political  position 
shall  not  affect  the  administration  of  the  laws.     Such  a 

^  "  I  find  that  children's  minds  are  remarkably  suggestive,  that  they 
display  a  truly  wonderful  command  of  illustrative  material,  and  that 
their  moral  perceptions  are  exceedingly  acute.  I  am  constantly 
amazed  at  the  fine  distinctions  which  they  are  capable  of  drawing, 
and  in  this  respect  they  seem  far  to  excel  their  elders,  whose  moral 
sensibilities  have  been  blunted  and  whose  moral  judgment  has  been 
warped  by  the  degrading  influence  of  the  struggle  for  existence." — 
Felix  Adler,  The  Moral  Instruction  of  the  Young,  p.  5. 

^  Compare  Earl  Barnes,  The  Child  as  a  Social  Factor,  Studies  in 
Education,  vol.  I,  pp.  355-360. 


PERSONAL  INFLUENCE  OF  PARENT  AND  TEACHER  195 

demand  is  right,  and  we  should  fulfill  it  with  children  as 
scrupulously  as  with  adults.  It  means,  again,  merely  that 
we  should  exclude  elements  that  are  arbitrary  and  whim- 
sical and  be  law-abiding  in  the  exercise  of  our  authority. 
Yet  whatever  we  hold  with  reference  to  the  state,  Justice 
in  the  home  and  the  school  must  go  far  beyond  that  de- 
mand and  be  in  a  very  deep  sense  a  respecter  of  persons. 

Let  me  make  the  problem  clear  by  an  illustration. 
Suppose  you  are  a  public  school  teacher  into  whose  room 
comes  a  boy  from  what  we  should  rightly  call  a  good  home : 
that  is,  a  child  who  has  been  taught  by  every  lesson  of  his 
experience  hitherto  that  if  he  will  only  do  the  best  he  can 
everyone  is  anxious  to  help  him.  He  commits  some  fault. 
Beside  him  sits  a  boy  who  comes  from  what  would  be 
ineffably  dignified  were  we  to  call  it  a  home,  who  has  not 
been  humanly  bom  into  the  world,  but  merely  spawned 
an'^.  left  to  survive  as  he  might,  who  has  been  taught  by 
ea,''  Messon  of  his  bitter  experience  hitherto  that  every 
man's  hand,  yes,  and  sadly  enough,  every  woman's,  even 
his  mother's,  is  against  him,  so  that  if  he  wants  anything 
he  must  take  it  for  himself.  He  commits  the  same  fauit. 
Would  you  punish  the  two  children  in  the  same  way? 
It  is  said,  "If  you  do  not  the  school  will  exclaim  that  you 
are  showing  favoritism."  Doubtless  the  school  would, 
indeed  it  is  to  be  hoped  so,  for  if  you  jump  suddenly  from 
a  plane  of  purely  arbitrary  punishment  to  a  moral  plane, 
you  cannot  expect  the  children  to  follow  you  at  once,  and 
their  demurring  is  an  evidence  of  some  judgment. 

What,  however,  would  be  the  temptation  to  the  ordinary 
teacher  ?  I  do  not  mean  the  Christ-like  teacher  who  has 
overcome  all  the  common  weaknesses,  but  just  the  average 
human  being  who  teaches  school, — interested  in  the  chil- 


196  MORAL   EDUCATION 

dren,  but  glad  when  the  term  is  over;  hking  to  teach 
school  well  enough,  but  anxious  for  pay-day  to  come, — 
what  would  be  the  temptation  to  such  a  teacher?  With 
the  good  child  one  may  easily  sympathize;  he  is  clean  and 
attractive.  It  is  pleasant  to  take  his  point  of  view  and 
appreciate  that  he  is  only  a  thoughtless  child.  So  you 
incline  to  say,  **Well,  never  mind,  you  will  not  do  it  again." 

It  is  neither  easy  nor  pleasant  to  enter  into  the  other 
child  and  take  his  point  of  view.  He  is  dirty,  physically 
and  morally,  and  it  is  impossible  to  love  unclean  people, 
unless  we  begin  by  loving  the  potential  and  marred  hu- 
manity that  is  in  them.  This  child  will  not  look  you  in 
the  face;  he  smells  bad;  the  words  he  speaks  are  vulgar  and 
offensive  to  you — how  could  they  be  otherwise,  poor  child ! 
he  has  heard  no  other.  You  probably  seat  him  imme- 
diately in  front  of  you  where  you  can  get  your  hand  on 
him  easily,  or  else  in  the  far  corner  of  the  room  where  he 
can  do  little  harm  and  be  least  offensive.  It  is  easy  to 
stand  apart  from  this  child  and  say,  "We  are  sorry  for 
you,  but  the  law  must  be  enforced  and  you  must  take  your 
punishment." 

There  is  no  rule  for  dealing  with  these  two  cases;  yet 
should  not  our  treatment  of  the  two  children  in  general  be 
opposite  to  that  which  the  unthinking  teacher  is  tempted 
to  follow  ?  The  good  little  boy,  who  has  learned  from  all 
his  past  experience  that  everyone  is  anxious  to  help  him 
if  he  will  but  try,  needs  one  more  lesson :  he  needs  to  learn 
that  he  must  try ;  and  we  often  make  so-called  *  good ' 
children  into  moral  weaklings  by  not  teaching  them  that 
lesson.  The  other  child! — If  you  cannot  waken  the  poor, 
frozen  atom  of  what  should  have  been  a  human  heart  into 
something  like  humanity,  how  can  you  give  him  any  moral 


PERSONAL  INFLUENCE  OF  PARENT  AND  TEACHER  197 

medicine  at  all,  any  treatment  that  will  not  simply  make 
him  hate  you,  the  school  you  teach,  the  society  you  repre- 
sent, and  the  law  you  are  trying  to  interpret  to  him  ? 

Thus  the  Justice  we  need  in  the  government  of  our 
children,  far  from  being  no  respecter  of  persons,  must  have 
a  heart  of  tender,  loving  appreciation  of  the  spirit  and  atti- 
tude of  the  individual  child  whom  we  would  help.  Hence 
the  crowning  virtue  needed  by  parent  and  teacher  in  all 
control  of  children  is  love.  Love  is  the  doorway  to  all 
personal  appreciation;  it  makes  it  possible  for  us  to  enter 
the  spirit  of  another  and  see  the  world  from  his  point  of 
view.  It  alone  supplies  the  infinite  patience,  care  and 
tenderness  through  which  w^e  learn  to  see  into  the  hearts 
of  our  children  and  to  bring  to  bear  upon  them  the  in- 
fluences that  will  correct  and  chasten  and  mold  into  har- 
monious life.  Force,  physical  or  mental,  knowledge, 
reason, — necessary  as  they  may  be, — these  are  ineffective 
instruments  compared  with  love  in  building  the  character 
of  our  children.  We  can  love  them  into  a  beauty  of  spirit 
to  which  we  cannot  force  or  reason  them.  If,  ever,  it 
should  be  difficult  for  us  to  love  the  children  entrusted 
to  our  care,  we  can  put  ourselves  in  the  way  of  loving  them 
and  strive  to  love  the  best  for  them,  and  that  in  the  end 
leads  to  personal  love. 

The  love  that  is  so  necessary  is  not  opposed  to  justice; 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  heart  of  the  justice  the  parent  or 
teacher  needs.  Justice  without  love  becomes  cruelty,  as 
love  without  justice  degenerates  into  sentimentality  and 
moral  weakness.  Thus  the  two  virtues  must  be  fused 
into  one,  and  this  higher  union  of  the  two  is  what  is  so 
necessary  in  our  relation  to  children.  Our  love  must  have 
an  element  of  iron  in  it.     It  must  be  willing  to  give  pain 


198  MORAL   EDUCATION 

to  the  loved  one  where  that  is  necessary  to  his  moral  health.  .g 

Parents  who  say,  ''I  love  my  child  too  much  to  punish  I 

him,"  either  mean  by  punishment  merely  whipping,  or 
else  love,  not  the  child  and  his  welfare,  but  their  own  ease 
and  comfort.  It  is  far  easier  to  say,  "  Never  mind,  let  it 
go,"  than  to  say,  "My  child,  let  us  sit  down  together  and 
try  to  understand  what  you  have  done  and  how  you  can 
be  helped  over  your  mistake,"  and  then  to  give  the  moral 
medicine  that  is  needed.  Thus  the  earnest  strength  of 
justice  and  the  tender  appreciation  of  love  must  unite  in 
us,  on  the  basis  of  sincerity,  if  our  personal  influence  is  to 
serve  the  child's  best  moral  development  through  all  the 
functions  of  government  we  exercise,  as  parents  and  teach- 
ers, over  him. 


MORAL  TEACHING  BY  EXAMPLE 

It  is  not  only  in  the  direct  government  of  children  that 
they  are  influenced  by  the  personal  character  of  the  parent 
and  the  teacher ;  whether  we  wish  to  do  so  or  not,  we  are 
constantly  teaching  by  example,  because  of  the  child's 
direct  imitation  of  our  behavior.  We  frequently  have 
cause  to  regret  this  tendency  of  the  child  to  echo  the 
example  we  set  before  him,  since  we  realize  painfully  the 
unworthiness  of  the  example;  but  no  tendency  of  child 
life  is  clearer,  and  we  must  recognize  it  as  an  unavoidable 
element  of  the  problem.  Indeed,  the  recognition  of  this 
fact  is  one  of  the  most  helpful  influences  in  the  moral  edu- 
cation of  the  parent.  Perhaps  nothing  else  can  so  spur 
us  to  self-control  as  to  hear  our  carelessly  vulgar  language 
echoed  back  from  the  mouths  of  our  children  and  see  our 
sullen  and  irritable  behavior  reflected  by  them.  Thus 
every  adult  associated  with  children  must  take  account  of 
the  fact  that  they  are  influenced  by  the  standard  of  behavior 
he  sets  before  them  and  must  see  to  it  that  the  standard  is 
as  worthy  as  possible.  I  do  not  mean  that  he  should  over- 
shoot the  mark  and  fall  into  hypocrisy  by  seeking  to  appear 
better  than  he  is :  I  mean  that  he  should  strive  to  be  as 
worthy  as  possible. 

Just  here  one  of  the  most  perplexing  questions  m6ets  us. 
In  many  things  the  right  standard  for  the  adult  differs 


200  MORAL   EDUCATION 

somewhat  from  that  applicable  to  the  child.  Shall  the 
adult  follow  the  standard  that  is  suitable  for  children,  or 
shall  he  follow  his  own  and  seek  to  make  the  child  under- 
stand the  dilterence  ?  In  general,  I  think  the  latter.  Cer- 
tain things  to  eat  are  healthful  for  the  parent,  but  injurious 
to  the  child.  It  is  not  best  to  give  them  up,  nor  to  exclude 
the  child  from  the  table  when  they  are  upon  it,  but  to 
accustom  him  from  the  beginning  to  recognize  that  as  a 
child  he  must  forego  certain  pleasures  which  he  may 
enjoy  in  maturity.  In  the  extreme  case  all  must  admit 
this  principle:  surely  there  is  no  reason  why  the  parent 
should  go  to  bed  at  seven  or  the  child  sit  up  until  eleven 
to  bring  the  two  standards  of  behavior  together. 

The  question  becomes  difficult,  however,  just  in  that 
margin  of  our  behavior  where  habits  which  are  relatively 
non-moral  so  easily  slip  over  into  what  is  positively  harmfuL 
Smoking  is  perhaps  the  best  example.  All  physicians 
are  agreed  that  the  habit  of  smoking  is  injurious  to  a  grow- 
ing child  or  youth.  Many  physicians  hold,  however,  that 
smoking,  kept  rigidly  within  limits,  and  used  as  a  means  of 
relaxation  and  not  as  a  stimulant  to  work,  is  not  appre- 
ciably injurious  to  an  adult,  and  may  add  greatly  to  the 
pleasure  of  social  intercourse.  What,  then,  should  be 
the  attitude  of  a  father  or  schoolmaster  in  this  connec- 
tion? Should  he  renounce  the  habit  as  setting  an  exam- 
ple he  does  not  wish  his  boys  to  imitate,  even  though 
he  believes  it  entirely  right  for  himself;  or  should  he  con- 
tinue to  live  to  his  own  conviction,  and  trust  to  making  the 
children  understand  the  difference  in  standard  for  youth 
and  maturity?  I  believe  the  main  key  to  the  solution  is 
this:  Is  the  father  or  teacher  convinced  that  the  habit  is 
one  he  would  be  glad  to  have  his  boys  acquire  in  maturity 


MORAL   TEACHING    BY   EXAMPLE  201 

just  as  he  practises  it  ?  If  this  question  can  truthfully  be 
answered  aflSrmatively  there  is  no  direct  reason  for  fore- 
going the  habit;  but  if  the  father  or  teacher  has  a  half- 
confessed  sense  that  he  would  answer  the  question  nega- 
tively, it  means  he  is  not  really  living  to  his  own  highest 
standard  and  would  better  turn  around. 

There  may  be  indirect  reasons  for  self-denial,  even  when 
there  is  no  direct  one.  The  current  social  practice  may  so 
abuse  a  habit,  pushing  it  over  from  the  non-moral  to  the 
immoral  field,  that  an  example  of  more  rigid  abstinence  is 
necessary  as  a  corrective.  Still,  such  an  example  may  be 
misconstrued,  and  lead  to  contempt  instead  of  imitation. 
Temperance  is  always  harder  than  abstinence  and  is 
usually  better.  Life  means  a  sane  balance  of  activities; 
and  an  example  of  harmonious  self-control,  putting  every- 
thing in  its  place,  may  be  far  more  effective  than  one  of 
asceticism  assumed  for  didactic  purposes.  There  is  a 
further  corrective  principle,  however.  Where  one  man 
errs  in  exaggerated  self-denial,  a  dozen  sink  into  the  slough 
of  self-indulgence.  Sensualism  and  asceticism  may  be 
equally  failure,  but  the  former  is  the  common  danger. 
Especially  is  this  true  where  the  mastery  of  material  con- 
ditions is  such  that  desires  can  be  easily  gratified  and  there 
is  little  need  of  struggle.  Then  asceticism  becomes  a 
sound  instrument  of  education,  and  some  measure  of  even 
unnecessary  renunciation  is  an  effective  element  of  moral 
discipline.  There  is  great  need  to  teach  this  truth  to 
children  in  well-to-do  families  in  these  days;  and  the 
teaching  by  example  is  more  effective  than  any  other.  ^ 

^"As  a  final  practical  maxim,  relative  to  these  habits  of  the  will, 
we  may,  then,  offer  something;  like  this :  Keep  the  faculty  of  effort  alive 
in  youhya  little  gratuitous  exercise  every  day.  That  is,  be  systematic- 
ally ascetic  or  heroic  in  little  unnecessary  points,  do  every  day  or 

/T       ^-  or  THt  s 

^    .   DIVERSITY  ■ 


202  MORAL   EDUCATION 

A  further  complication  enters  the  problem  of  teaching 
by  example  where  there  is  a  difference  of  conviction  be- 
tween two  who  share  in  the  control  of  children.  Take,  for 
instance,  the  case  where  one  parent,  perhaps  without  the 
least  sense  of  wrong-doing,  practises  something  of  which 
the  other  morally  disapproves.  What  is  the  disapproving 
parent  to  do  ?  He  (it  is  usually  she)  desires  to  teach  the 
child  the  highest  moral  standard,  yet  to  waken  conscious 
condemnation  of  the  other  parent  not  only  involves  dis- 
loyalty but  injures  the  child.  We  touch  here  one  of  the 
most  subtle  and  difficult  of  all  problems  of  moral  educa- 
tion— the  teaching  of  the  dangerous  but  indispensable 
lesson  of  moral  toleration.  The  child  must  be  led  to  see 
that  equally  earnest  people  may  differ  vitally  on  the  serious 
questions  of  life,  and  that  it  is  one's  duty  to  live  unswerv- 
ingly to  one's  own  highest  standard,  yet  cordially  welcome 
the  same  attitude  in  others,  even  when  it  leads  to  actions 
of  which  one  disapproves.  Obviously  there  must  be  rigid 
limits  to  this  moral  toleration.  Excluding  those  whose 
earnest  conviction  is  merely  pretense,  there  are  actions  so 
positively  harmful  to  others  that  they  must  be  repressed 
even  when  flowing  from  conviction.  Yet  how  difficult  it  is 
to  decide  wisely  upon  these  limits;  and  children  need  the 

two  something  for  no  other  reason  than  that  you  would  rather  not 
do  it,  so  that  when  the  hour  of  dire  need  draws  nigh,  it  may  find  you 
not  unnerved  and  untrained  to  stand  the  test.  Asceticism  of  this 
sort  is  like  the  insurance  which  a  man  pays  on  his  house  and  goods. 
The  tax  does  him  no  good  at  the  time,  and  possibly  may  never  bring 
him  a  return.  But  if  the  fire  does  come,  his  having  paid  it  will  be  his 
salvation  from  ruin.  So  with  the  man  who  has  daily  inured  himself 
to  habits  of  concentrated  attention,  energetic  volition,  and  self-denial 
in  unnecessary  things.  He  will  stand  like  a  tower  when  everything 
rocks  around  him,  and  when  his  softer  fellow-mortals  are  winnowed 
like  chaff  in  the  blast." — William  James,  The  Principles  of  Psy- 
chology,  vol.  I,  pp.  126-127. 


MORAL   TEACHING   BY   EXAMPLE  203 

emphasis  placed  upon  living  to  one's  own  highest  standard, 
yet  refraining  from  condemning  those  who  are  striving  i-^ 
their  own  different  way  to  do  the  same.     The  true  prop  i 
tion  is  hard  indeed  to  attain;  thus,  clear  as  are  the  gre 
principles  of  conduct,  their  application  in  practice  deman 
earnest  effort  and  constant  revision  in  the  light  of  growing 
experience. 

There  is  one  phase  of  the  teaching  by  example  that  is  of 
peculiar  importance  in  moral  education.  The  most  diffi- 
cult virtue  of  character  to  teach  directly  is  love,  just  because 
it  is  not  a  virtue  of  conduct  but  of  the  spirit  behind  conduct. 
The  two  great  commandments  of  love  tell  us,  not  what  we 
should  do,  but  how  we  should  feel,  that  good  action  may 
flow  ceaselessly  from  the  right  loving  heart.  Yet  if  love 
is  a  virtue  of  the  spirit,  it  tends  to  wear  an  outer  garment; 
and  the  behavior  of  love  is  courtesy.  By  courtesy  I  do  not 
mean  etiquette — that  is  courtesy  gone  to  seed;  but  the 
natural  expression  of  a  loving  heart  that  seeks  to  put  others 
at  theirease«and  give  them  joy.  Thus  it  is  possible  to  teach 
the  virtue  of  love  by  wearing  habitually  its  garment, 
courtesy,  and  so  to  lead  children  from  an  imitation  of  the 
behavior  of  love  to  an  initiation  into  its  spirit.  We  some- 
times feel  that  childnen  are  too  small  to  deserve  the  little 
courtesies  of  life:  quite  apart  from  the  fact  that  courtesy 
should  come  from  within  and  not  be  dictated  by  the  condi- 
tion of  the  recipient,  we  cannot  be  too  scrupulously  cour- 
teous to  children,  since  this  is  the  most  effective  means  of 
inculcating  the  highest  virtue  of  character. 

It  is  most  important  that  this  garment  of  courtesy 
should  be  worn  habitually  in  the  life  of  the  home.  Noth- 
ing is  more  paradoxical  than  that  perversity  of  human 
nature-  which  leads  us  to  be  scrupulously  courteous  to  the 


204  MORAL   EDUCATION 

stranger  within  our  gates,  while  we  feel  that  we  are  excusable 
for  expressing  all  our  meanness  and  irritation  to  those  we 
know  and  love  best.  It  is  true  we  ought  to  be  able  to  rest 
in  those  who  love  us,  and  not  need  to  keep  up  a  manner 
foreign  to  our  spirits;  but  we  should  see  to  it  that  the  man- 
ner natural  to  our  spirits  is  the  unvarying  courtesy  that 
clothes  a  loving  heart.  We  should  be  able  to  wear  our 
every-day  clothes  at  home,  but  they  should  be  just  as 
appropriate  and  beautiful  in  their  way  as  any  other  gar- 
ments. We  ought  never  to  appear  in  moral  undress  before 
those  we  love.  In  fact,  the  need  is  to  make  of  courtesy, 
not  a  garment  we  remove  and  put  on  for  different  occa- 
sions, but  rather  a  living  and  harmonious  body  to  clothe 
inseparably  the  loving  spirit  within.  Yet  if  we  cannot  be 
courteous  all  the  time,  would  it  not  be  better  to  spend  our 
weariness  and  irritation  on  the  stranger  within  our  gates, 
who  comes  and  goes  and  cares  very  little,  and  save  every 
element  of  exquisite  courtesy  for  those  whose  lives  are 
lifted  or  broken  by  our  slight  words  and  deeds  ?  Courtesy 
will  transfigure  the  hard  realities  of  life  like  a  beautiful 
atmosphere  giving  distance  and  perspective. 

As  we  ourselves  seek  to  wear  unweariedly  this  garment  of 
courtesy  that  children  may  feel  the  inspiration  of  love 
behind  it,  so  we  should  hold  them  steadily  to  the  same 
type  of  behavior.  Especially  should  we  insist  that  they 
show  unvarying  courtesy  toward  those  whom  they  may  be 
tempted  to  regard  as  inferiors.  They  must  wear  habitually 
the  garment  of  courtesy  to  be  initiated  into  the  spirit  of 
humanity. 

There  is  a  still  deeper  phase  of  the  teaching  by  example 
that  is  not  often  recognized,  and  that  should  comfort  every 
earnest  but  discouraged  teacher  or  parent:  we  teach  not 


MORAL   TEACHING   BY   EXAMPLE  205 

only  by  what  we  do,  but  by  what  we  try  to  do  even  when 
we  fail.  It  is  possible,  fortunately,  to  teach  lessons  above 
the  level  of  what  we  are  in  conduct,  though  not  higher 
than  what  we  want  to  be  and  strive  to  be.  The  ideal  we 
are  struggling  toward  teaches  above  our  halting  and  im- 
perfect action.  Thus  children  tend  to  imitate  not  only 
our  conduct  but,  deeper  than  it,  the  spirit  that  inspires  our 
conduct.  That  is  why  pretense  is  so  futile,  and  why  every 
attempt  to  wear  a  garment  of  virtue  merely  for  effect  is  apt 
to  lead  to  an  imitation,  not  of  the  assumed  virtue,  but  of  the 
hypocrisy  that  inspired  its  assumption,  as,  for  instance, 
when  our  behavior  is  conventionally  proper  but  with  no 
love  behind.  Children  pierce  through  what  we  do  to 
what  we  mean  to  be  and  do;  and  the  influence  of  the 
ideal  toward  which  we  are  struggling  is  in  the  end  more 
powerful  than  the  changing  accident  of  the  day's  life. 

Thus  the  true  teaching  by  example  is  through  a  kind  of 
contagion  of  the  ideal  that  passes  from  soul  to  soul  even 
when  the  ideal  is  far  beyond  us.^  This  has  always  been 
the  supreme  force  in  education.  It  is  only  a  student  who 
can  awaken  the  student  spirit  in  others;  and  one  must 
strive  earnestly  for  noble  aims  to  be  able  to  touch  others 
into  the  same  kind  of  life.  Agassiz  was  perhaps  the 
greatest  teacher  of  natural  science  our  country  has  seen, 
and  yet  his  judgment  was  wrong  on  certain  of  the  most 
important  problems  of  modern  science.     Wherein  lay  his 

^  "A  life  whose  ideal  value  has  been  perfectly  established  in  experi- 
ence never  aims  to  serve  as  model  in  its  form,  but  only  in  its  essence, 
in  its  spirit.  It  is  the  greatest  mistake  to  suppose  that  spiritual, 
human  perfection  can  serve  as  a  model  in  its  form.  This  accounts 
for  the  common  experience  that  the  taking  of  such  external  manifes- 
tations of  perfection  as  examples,  instead  of  elevating  mankind, 
checks,  nay,  represses,  its  development." — Froebel,  T/ie  Education  of 
Man,  trajislated  by  Hailmann,  p.  12. 


206  MORAL   EDUCATION 

greatness  as  a  teacher  ?  Not  in  his  knowledge,  but  in  the 
fact  that  he  was  the  leader  of  his  students,  a  step  in  ad- 
vance of  them  and  inspiring  them  to  his  own  endeavor 
for  truth.  It  is  the  same  quality  that  shows  in  all  great 
teachers:  Socrates,  Arnold,  Horace  Mann,  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi,  Froebel.  It  is  not  whether  we  arrive,  but  whether 
we  earnestly  strive,  that  determines  our  lifting  power  over 
our  children.  Thus,  even  though  we  may  not  dare  to  hope 
that  our  lives  may  be  able  to  influence  others  through  the 
*  contagion  of  a  great  soul '  that  is  so  supreme  in  educa- 
tion, still  in  our  sphere  in  home  and  school,  if  we  are 
devoted  servants  of  ideals  that  lift  away  from  the  plane 
of  merely  selfish  life,  we  may  hope  that,  even  in  failure, 
some  of  the  radiance  of  the  ideal  will  flow  from  our 
spirit  and  touch  the  children  we  love  into  sane,  sweet, 
earnest  moral  life. 


XIX 

DIRECT  ETHICAL  INSTRUCTION 

We  have  now  studied  the  great  means  of  moral  culture — 
action  and  environment — in  the  various  forms  in  which  we 
can  utiUze  them.  The  work  of  these  influences  needs 
to  be  reinforced  by  ethical  instruction.  I  have  already 
shown  how  absurd  it  is  to  regard  the  problem  of  teaching 
ethics  to  children  as  coextensive  with  that  of  moral  educa- 
tion, or  even  as  the  most  important  part  of  the  latter;  yet 
ethical  instruction  is  a  necessary  part  of  our  task.  It 
should  serve  two  aims:  (1)  To  waken  consciousness  of  life 
and  its  problems,  and  develop  an  organic  view  of  the  laws 
of  life;  (2)  To  rationalize  habits  already  formed  and  give 
independent  guidance  and  control  of  them.  In  other 
words,  ethical  instruction  aims  to  furnish  the  individual  a 
definite  body  of  knowledge  and  ideas,  and  to  organize  this 
into  life  and  make  it  fruitful  in  conduct.  It  will  be  noted 
that  it  is  the  second  aim  which  justifies  the  first.  To  give 
a  body  of  ethical  knowledge  that  is  not  made  effective  in 
life  may  be  worse  than  useless,  since  it  leads  to  a  fatal 
divorce  between  thought  and  action.  To  go  on  reasoning 
ethically  without  living  morally  is  as  fatal  as  to  receive  con- 
tinual emotional  stimulus  without  expressing  it  in  vigorous 
action;  the  result  in  both  cases  is  dissipation  of  the  moral 
energies  and  deterioration  of  character.  Thus  the  element 
of  ethical  instruction  is  distinctly  subordinate  to  moral 


208  MORAL   EDUCATION 

living  and  must  be  made  to  serve  directly  the  latter.  The 
chief  function  of  ethical  instruction,  therefore,  will  be  to 
bring  clearly  into  consciousness  principles  that  have  already 
been  built  into  character,  thus  transforming  the  basis  of 
moral  habit  into  a  clear-sighted,  independent  morality. 

There  are  two  different  methods  by  which  we  may  under- 
take this  work  of  ethical  instruction.  We  may  study 
directly  the  problems  and  laws  of  ethics  with  our  children ; 
or  we  may  utilize  the  material  furnished  by  history,  litera- 
ture and  other  subjects  of  study,  and  do  our  ethical  teaching 
by  indirection.  Probably  we  shall  find  some  combination 
of  the  two  methods  most  helpful,  meantime  let  us  consider 
them  in  turn. 

The  direct  ethical  instruction  of  children  must  be  guided 
by  certain  definite  principles  and  conform  to  some  rigid 
restrictions: 

1.  It  is  indispensable  to  avoid  'moralizing.'  Didactic 
preaching  ever  has  small  eifect  upon  character;  and  per- 
haps children  resent  it  even  more  than  we  do.  "Be  good, 
and  you  will  be  happy:"  How  true  (sometimes),  and 
how  futile  to  say  it!  Probably  no  one  ever  was  made 
good  by  the  reiteration  of  such  moral  commonplace. 
I  have  puzzled  much  over  tti(5  question  why  moralizing 
is  so  bad  as  well  as  ineffective.  I  think  it  must  be  be- 
cause its  obvious  generalities  get  more  and  more  detached 
from  experience,  till  in  the  end  they  become  almost  hypo- 
critical, since  they  are  repeated  with  no  real  thought 
behind  them.^ 

2.  Therefore  our  teaching  must  take  immediate  hold  of 

^  "Most  of  our  pocket  wisdom  is  conceived  for  the  use  of  mediocre 
people,  to  discourage  them  from  ambitious  attempts,  and  generally 
console  them  in  their  mediocrity." — Robert  Louis  Stevenson, 
Crabbed  Age  and  Youth,  in  Virginihus  Puerisque,  pp.  81-82. 


DIRECT   ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION  209 

the  child's  experience.  It  is  always  possible  to  accomplish 
this,  since  all  the  great  principles  of  human  living  are  pres- 
ent in  the  child^s  world.  While  certain  phases  of  later 
experience  cannot  come  to  children,  the  laws  of  happy  and 
helpful  living  are  as  completely  exemplified  in  the  child's 
world  as  in  our  own.  Earnest  effort,  self-control,  gener- 
osity, fidelity:  the  child  needs  these  as  we  need  them,  and 
the  same  results  follow  them  in  both  cases.  Thus  we  can 
give  ethical  instruction  a  real  meaning  to  the  child  only  by 
beginning  where  he  is  and  bringing  him  to  see  the  implica- 
tions of  the  experience  through  which  he  is  passing. 

3.  At  the  same  time  the  teaching  must  be  generic,  that  is, 
the  child  must  recognize  the  principle  behind  the  concrete 
case.  If  we  lose  the  law  in  its  application,  the  aim  of  our 
instruction  is  defeated.  We  want  the  children  to  realize, 
not  merely  that  it  is  mean  ^r  this  particular  child  to  carry 
tales  to  the  teacher  about  his  classmates,  but  that  tale- 
bearing is  mean ;  not  only  that  it  was  wrong  for  this  other 
child  to  tell  his  mother  a  lie,  but  that  lying  is  ugly  and 
bad.  Beginning  with  the  concrete  act  and  making  our 
teaching  take  hold  of  the  child's  experience,  we  must 
nevertheless  bring  him  to  a  clear  recognition  of  the  law 
that  applies  to  the  multitude  of  cases. 

4.  To  escape  the  semi-hypocrisy  of  didactic  moralizing 
it  is  not  only  necessary  that  the  teaching  should  relate  itself 
to  the  child's  experience,  it  is  also  indispensable  that  the 
teacher  should  be  true.  The  same  sincerity  or  moral 
reality  which  we  found  was  the  necessary  basis  of  helpful 
government  is  needed  for  our  intellectual  teaching  of  the 
child.  The  curse  of  ethics  in  all  ages  has  been  the  tend- 
ency of  ethical  teachers  to  impart  what  they  considered 
morally  useful,  instead  of  what  at  bottom  they  believed 


210  MORAL   EDUCATION 

to  be  true.  If  a  high  form  of  expediency,  this  is  expediency 
nevertheless,  and  as  debauching  as  that  curse  always  is. 
Its  first  result  in  this  form  is  to  destroy  the  teacher's  power 
to  discern  the  truth,  its  second  is  to  produce  a  revolt  from 
the  teaching  in  the  learner. 

A  flagrant  illustration  of  this  error  has  appeared  re- 
cently in  the  making  of  text-books  in  physiology  to  suit  the 
opinions  of  a  portion  of  the  population,  and  then  securing 
the  legal  enforcement  of  this  teaching  as  science.  In  some 
instances  public  school  teachers  are  required  to  give  to 
their  pupils,  as  proved  truth,  statements  regarding  the 
effects  of  beer,  wine  and  tobacco  which  are  still  in  debate 
among  scientific  experts.  Well-intentioned  as  the  people 
are  who  have  secured  such  legislation,  its  effect  is  simply 
vicious,  defeating  the  very  aim  they  have  in  view.  Omit- 
ting the  children  of  parents  whose  views  coincide  with  the 
teaching,  the  child  is  at  first  shocked,  and  then  disgusted, 
as  he  finds  his  parents  and  others  whom  he  respects 
regard  the  instruction  he  has  received  in  school  as  untrue. 
If  he  escapes  this  fate  he  is  made  into  the  moral  prig  who 
attempts  to  reform  his  parents  before  he  has  any  ability 
to  pass  judgment  on  their  conduct.  Usually_the_^nal 
result  intellectually  is  to  dull  the  child's  instinet^for  truth 
and  confuse  his  moral  sense,  while  practi£ally_-he_ii:e- 
quently  reacts  against  the  teaching  and  so  goe&  to  a  di-sas- 
trous  extreme  before  he  learns,  that  the  path  of  indulgence 
is  noOhe  path  of  life.L  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  a  teacher 

*  Compare  President  Eliot  in  More  Money  for  the  Public  Scuoui^, 
pp.  27-28: 

"In  an  attempt  to  use  the  schools  as  a  means  of  promoting  total 
abstinence  from  intoxicating  drinks  a  grave  injury  has  been  done  to 
the  teaching  of  all  the  sciences  in  the  schools;  because  many  state- 
ments about  alcohol,  which  are  not  known  to  be  true,  and  which  are 


DIRECT   ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION  211 

should  never  teach  a  conviction  which  others  reject :  often 
it  is  his  duty  to  do  just  that;  I  do  insist  that  he  should 
always  distinguish  what  is,  from  what  he  believes. 
Science — exact  and  organized  knowledge — should  be  taught 
as  science;  opinion  and  belief,  even  when  rising  to  lofty 
conviction,  must  be  recognized  as  such  and  never  confused 
with  undoubted  fact.  With  the  public  schools  we  may 
go  farther  than  this  and  say  that  the  schools  supported  by 
all  the  people  should  never  be  used  for  any  kind  of  sec- 
tarian propagandism,  whether  prosecuted  in  the  name  of 
morals  or  religion. 

The  illustration  I  have  used  is  but  one  of  many  that  are 
available;  it  is  the  general  principle  I  wish  to  emphasize. 
We  dare  never  tamper  with  objective  facts  for  the  sake  of 
anticipated  ethical  results:  if  we  do,  we  defeat  our  aim  in 
every  instance.  Unvarying  sincerity  in  facing  the  facts 
and  laws  of  life  is  the  necessary  basis  of  all  helpful 
ethical  instruction  of  children — or  adults. 

5.  While  we  must  thus  be  true  in  our  teaching,  it  is 
necessary  to  adapt  it  to  the  period  of  development  of  the 


apparently  contradicted  by  the  common  observation  of  the  children 
themselves,  have  been  forced  into  the  schools.  This  mode  of  com- 
batting the  tendency  to  use  alcoholic  drinks  has  been  de\ased  and 
executed  bv  conscientious  women;  yet  it  would  be  hard  to  imagine 
a  less  intelligent  mode.  The  public  schools  ought  to  have  made  it 
impossible  that  benevolence  and  devotion  should  be  so  misdirected." 
See  the  digest  of  Laws  Relating  to  Temperance  instruction  in 
the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  igo2,  vol.  I,  pp.  315- 
338.  Washington,  Government  Printing  Office,  1903.  Compare 
further  the  various  articles  and  reports  on  Temperance  Instruction, 
in  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  igoo-igoi,  vol.  I, 
pp.  1027-1050.  Washington,  Government  Printing  Office,  1902. 
The  article  by  Superintendent  Ferguson  (pp.  1032-1040,  reprinted 
from  the  EdiLcational  Review,  March,  1902)  gives  examples  of  the 
false  and  questionable  statements  in  the  'indorsed'  text-books  on 
physiology. 


212  MORAL   EDUCATION 

child.  That  is,  we  should  conform  to  the  same  principle 
in  instruction  which  we  obey  in  government  and  discipline. 
As  simple  obedience  to  personal  authority  precedes  any 
conscious  response  to  law,  so  the  child  can  be  taught  in- 
tellectually the  reason  and  meaning  of  the  one  type  of 
virtue  before  the  other.  Similarly,  when  the  instinct  of 
personal  possession  strongly  awakens  within  the  child,  the 
time  has  come  when  he  can  be  taught  respect  for  the 
property  of  others.  To  take  a  larger  illustration:  the 
self-affirming  tendencies  of  character  appear  before  that 
of  self-sacrifice.  Children  are  strong  egoists;  and  while 
this  egoism  needs  to  be  checked  and  corrected,  they  can 
understand  the  virtues  of  heroism,  self-reliance,  endur- 
ance, effort,  long  before  they  can  appreciate  the  sublimity 
of  forgiveness  and  the  beauty  of  non-resistance. 

There  is  no  question  here  of  teaching  a  false  standard 
and  then  replacing  it  by  a  true  one :  nothing  could  be  more 
disastrous  than  that.  I  have  shown  in  an  earlier  chapter 
that  a  standard  or  ideal  which  is  the  highest  that  can  be 
recognized  upon  a  certain  plane  of  development  is  abso- 
lutely binding  upon  that  plane.  The  hills  are  just  as  real 
as  the  mountains,  and  heroism  is  as  much  a  virtue  as  self- 
sacrifice.  The  principle  for  which  I  am  contending  is  but 
a  more  thorough-going  application  of  the  law  that  our 
teaching  must  take  hold  of  the  child's  concrete  experience. 
Since  the  function  of  our  instruction  is  to  illuminate  what 
the  child  is  living,  the  teaching  must  rise  to  new  problems 
and  larger  horizons  as  the  child  grows  into  them. 

It  is  evident,  then,  how  futile  must  be  the  attempt  to 
organize  the  subject-matter  of  ethics  according  to  a  purely 
logical  system  of  duties  and  feed  this  to  the  child.  We 
have  seen  that  ethics  has  been  nearly  the  last  of  the  sciences 


DIRECT   ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION  213 

to  receive  the  impulse  of  the  modern  spirit,  and  therefore 
this  false  method  has  survived  more  generally  in  ethics 
than  in  any  other  field.  Few  indeed  are  the  text-books, 
designed  for  the  ethical  instruction  of  children,  which 
escape  the  fault  of  being  based  entirely  upon  a  logical 
analysis  of  the  subject-matter,  instead  of  upon  an  appre- 
ciative recognition  of  the  process  of  growth  in  the  child. 

6.  Finally,  the  work  of  ethical  instruction  is  incomplete 
until  the  individual  reaches  a  comprehensive  view  of  the 
whole  field  of  the  laws  of  life.  While  the  teaching  must 
follow  his  experience  and  conform  to  the  steps  of  his  devel- 
opment, sound  living  demands  an  organic  view  of  the 
whole  of  life  and  its  problems.  Thus,  before  we  are  done, 
we  must  see  to  it  that  each  child  has  attained  this  com- 
pleteness of  view. 

Obviously  it  is  no  easy  task  to  teach  ethics  to  children 
and  obey  these  six  hard  conditions.  Shall  we  help  our- 
selves by  the  use  of  a  text-book  we  can  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  child  ?  Were  an  ideal  text-book  in  existence  this 
question  would  be  less  difiicult;  but  we  have  seen  that 
those  available  are  based  on  a  wrong  principle.  Better 
than  anything  in  English  are  certain  of  the  French  man- 
uals prepared  for  use  in  the  state  schools.^  While  intro- 
ducing much  concrete  matter  and  adapting  their  material 
somewhat  to  the  stages  of  the  child's  development,  they  still 
show  in  greater  or  less  degree  the  fault  mentioned.  The 
best  books  in  English,  of  which  Professor  Adler's  Moral 


» Compare:  Me ziiiRES,  Education  morale,  et  Instruction  Civique 
d,  V usage  des  Ecoles  m-imaires;  Li\rd,  Moi'ole  et  Enseignement  Civ- 
ique. h  Vusage  des  Ecoles  primaires;  Laloi,  L'Annee  Pr^paratoire 
d' Instruction  Morale  et  d' Instruction  Civique,  and  La  Premiere 
Annee  d' Instruction  Morale  et  Civique. 


214  MORAL   EDUCATION 

Instruction  of  Children  stands  first,  are  for  teachers  rather 
than  children,  even  when  going  beyond  the  outUning  of 
principles  to  the  presentation  of  a  considerable  body  of 
concrete  material  for  instruction,  as  Professor  Adler  does.^ 
Even  were  the  ideal  text-book  available  there  would  be 
some  question  as  to  its  use.  If  we  must  begin  where  the 
children  are  and  follow  the  lead  of  their  experiences  day  by 
day,  we  can  follow  no  prearranged  logical  series  of  lessons. 
In  geography  or  other  aspects  of  nature-study  it  is  possible 
to  plan  what  the  experience  of  the  child  shall  be;  but  we 
cannot  determine  his  ethical  experience,  and  only  in  the 
most  general  way  can  we  foresee  w^hat  it  will  be.  Thus 
here,  even  more  than  in  other  subjects  of  study,  the  better 
the  teacher,  the  less  need  is  there  for  a  text-book,  and  the 
greater  is  the  value  of  working  independently  of  such  a 
guide.  Every  teacher  knows  how  much  easier  it  is,  in 
history  for  example,  to  follow  the  outline  of  a  text-book 
or  give  a  formal  lecture,  than  to  put  books  aside,  face  a 
class  on  one's  feet,  follow  the  suggestions  that  come  from 
the  questions  and  thoughts  of  the  pupils,  and  yet  in  the  end 
have  covered  the  ground  of  the  lesson.  Nevertheless 
every  wise  teacher  knows  well  how  much  more  effective  the 
second  method  is  than  the  first.  It  is  most  of  all  in  ethics 
that  we  need  to  apply  this  wiser  method,  since  we  cannot 
assign  ethical  experience,  but  must  deal  with  what  life 
brings  forth.  Therefore  the  need  of  wise,  well-trained 
teachers  is  greatest  just  in  the  field  of  ethical  instruction 

1  Among  representative  text-books  available  in  English  for  the 
direct  ethical  instruction  of  children  are  the  following: 

J.  X.  Larned,  Primer  of  Right  and  Wrong;  C.  C.  Everett,  Ethics 
for  Young  People;  Oilman  and  Jackson,  Conduct  as  a  Fine  Art  (in- 
tended rather  for  teachers  than  to  be  put  directly  into  the  hands 
of  the  pupils) ;  W.  J.  Shearer,  Morals  and  Manners. 


DIRECT   ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION  215 

where,  hitherto,  least  attention  has  been  given  to  their 
preparation. 

Thus  for  a  capable  teacher  the  best  method  of  ethical 
instruction  will  be  talks  with  the  children  concerning 
the  ethical  laws  and  problems  into  contact  with  which 
their  experience  brings  them,  using  the  best  books  as 
guides  to  the  teacher  rather  than  as  texts  to  be  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  children.  I  have  used  the  word  teacher 
throughout  because  in  giving  ethical  instruction  the  parent 
as  well  is  fulfilling  the  teacher's  office.  The  parent  must, 
no  less  than  the  school  teacher,  obey  the  six  conditioning 
principles  I  have  laid  down;  but  in  the  home  it  is  possible 
to  go  further  than  in  the  school  in  uniting  the  instruction 
to  the  child's  immediate  experience.  The  texts  for  the 
parent  are  the  situations  and  problems  that  come  up  in 
such  numbers  daily.  The  child's  quarrel,  the  room  left 
untidy,  the  inexact  statement  of  what  has  happened,  the 
opportunity  for  generosity  or  self-denial :  these  and  count- 
less similar  events  in  the  child's  experience  furnish  the  best 
of  opportunities  to  drive  home  the  ethical  lesson.  While  a 
moral  problem  is  on,  its  treatment  falls  under  the  head  of 
discipline ;  but  when  it  is  settled  and  the  child  can  see  it  in 
some  perspective,  he  needs  to  recognize  intellectually  the 
principle  and  lesson  involved.  Perhaps  half  the  good  of 
discipline  is  often  lost  because  parents  will  not  take  the 
further  time  thus  to  bring  home  to  the  child's  intellect  the 
lesson  of  the  experience  through  which  he  has  passed. 
Parents  are  over  busied,  and  protest  that  their  hands  are 
more  than  filled  with  the  work  of  careful  discipline.  They 
need  to  see  that  the  time  given  to  the  further  task  of  ethical 
instruction  associated  with  the  child's  concrete  experience 
will  not  only  double  the  value  of  the  discipline  to  the 


216  MORAL   EDUCATION 

child,  but  will  greatly  lighten  the  work  of  discipline  in 
situations  arising  afterward. 

The  average  parent  will  be  much  more  sure  to  carry  out 
his  part  in  the  work  of  ethical  instruction  if  he  assigns 
some  regular  time  daily  for  it.  If  he  trusts  merely  to  the^ 
chance  conversation,  w4thr-hisrTMdren_  many  of_Jiie^^est 
oppnrttmities  for  ethijealtastruction^will-be- lost.  Eerhaps 
the  t^itightor  CYening  houris  the  best  of  the  day_lQjise_for 
such  a  purpose.  Jn  that  hour  tTie  worfe-anS-play  of  the 
day  draw  away;  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  the  day's  experi- 
ences with  calmer  spirit  and  in  wider  relation ;  the  drawing 
down  of  the  night  brings  to  everyone  a  certain  quiet  and 
meditative  solemnity.  Thus  if  the  parent  can  consecrate 
even  a  few  minutes  each  evening  to  quiet  talks  with  his 
children,  sometimes  with  all  together,  sometimes  with  each 
alone,  over  the  events  and  actions  of  the  dav,  the  work  of 
ethical  instruction  will  grow  apace  and  the  results  at  the 
end  of  a  year  will  amaze  one  who  has  not  previously  tried 
the  plan.  I  do  not  mean  that  the  larger  part  of  the  time  a 
parent  has  for  companionship  with  his  children  should  be 
thus  devoted  to  ethical  instruction:  that  would  be  fatal, 
since  it  would  tend  to  put  the  parent  on  another  plane  than 
the  child,  thus  defeating  the  great  ends  of  our  comradeship 
with  them.  Whether  or  not  a  specific  time  is  thus  dedi- 
cated for  ethical  instruction,  no  parent  should  ever  let  a 
critical  moral  experience  pass  into  the  child's  dim  yester- 
days without  seeing  to  it  that  the  meaning  of  the  experience 
has  been  brought  home  clearly  to  the  intellect  of  the  child. 

The  relation  of  the  parent  to  the  child  may  always  be 
more  intimate  than  that  of  the  teacher  dealing  with  groups 
of  children,  and  it  is  usually  unwise  to  attempt  in  the  school 
so  close  association  of  the  ethical  teaching  with  the  con- 


DIRECT   ETHICAL  INSTRUCTION  217 

Crete  experience  of  the  individual  child  as  is  possible  in  the 
home.  The  private  school  teacher,  especially  with  board- 
ing pupils,  may  do  this  more  than  the  public  school  teacher; 
and  in  so  far  as  any  teacher  has  time  and  opportunity  to 
talk  quietly  with  the  individual  child  he  may  bring  home 
the  lesson  of  a  particular  experience  just  as  is  possible  in 
the  home.  To  attempt  this  in  teaching  a  group  of  children, 
however,  may  mean  to  focus  undue  attention  on  the  indi- 
vidual most  concerned  and  thus  partly  to  defeat  the  aim  of 
the  teaching.  Moreover,  the  school  may  obviously  at- 
tempt a  more  complete  and  systematic  plan  of  instruction 
than  will  be  usual  in  the  home.  Therefore,  in  the  school, 
it  is  more  necessary  to  hold  regular  talks  with  the  group 
of  children.  There  is  still  something  to  be  said  against 
assigning  set  periods  for  such  work.  If  we  do  so  there  is 
danger  that  the  instruction  may  become  too  formal  and 
lose  its  living  quality.  Moreover,  it  is  peculiarly  true  in 
ethics  that  much  of  the  best  instruction  comes  by  the  way. 
Since,  as  we  have  seen,  every  faet  and  experience  has  its 
ethical  implications,  the  events  of  school  life  and  the  les- 
sons in  its  ordinary  course  furnish  more  opportunities 
than  we  can  utilize  for  bringing  home  the  great  ethical 
lessons  to  the  child,  without  in  the  least  falling  into  the  vice 
of  moralizing.  We  shall  see  in  the  following  chapters 
how  precious  are  these  opportunities  for  ethical  teaching 
by  indirection,  and  a  good  part  of  our  best  results  will 
come  through  utilizing  them. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  strong  reasons  in  favor  of  assign- 
ing a  definite  period  for  direct  ethical  instruction.  If  we 
do  not  the  pressure  of  school  work  tends,  for  the  ordinary 
teacher,  to  crowd  out  the  ethical  element,  and  the  results 
of  the  teaching  by  indirection,  if  priceless,  are  apt  to  be 


218  MORAL   EDUCATION 

incomplete,  failing  to  give  that  comprehensiveness  of  view 
we  have  found  to  be  so  necessary.  Moreover,  children 
love  directness  and  it  is  a  mistake  to  go  beating  about  the 
bush.  Indeed,  next  to  insincere  moralizing,  grown  people 
or  children  alike  resent  most  of  all  being  tricked  into  listen- 
ing to  ethical  instruction  in  the  guise  of  something  else.  It 
is  again  the  mistake  of  'sugar-coating*  which  we  found 
defeated  the  end  of  discipline.  Since  ethical  problems 
are  more  deeply  interesting  than  any  others,  the  ethical 
element  can  stand  alone  and  does  not  need  adventitious 
adornment.  Thus  we  resent  the  moral  tacked  on  to  the 
novel  or  poem,  and  are  not  drawn  to  the  minister's  Sunday 
evening  picture  show,  unless  it  be  a  sincere  use  of  art, 
bringing  home  its  human,  and  therefore  ethical,  meaning. 
On  the  whole,  then,  in  addition  to  all  the  ethical  in- 
struction which  can  come  through  the  ordinary  work  in 
history,  literature  and  other  subjects,  I  believe  it  is  wise 
to  assign  certain  periods,  say  twenty  minutes  daily,  or  a 
half-hour  three  times  a  week,  for  talks  by  the  teacher  with 
the  school,  on  the  ethical  questions  in  which  the  children 
are  interested  and  which  are  related  to  their  experience. 
The  teacher  must  guard  constantly  against  formalism, 
and  keep  before  him  the  fact  that  these  discussions  furnish 
but  a  fragment  of  the  ethical  instruction  that  should  be 
given.  He  must  also  realize  constantly  that  the  suggestions 
and  thoughts  which  he  can  succeed  in  getting  spontaneously 
from  the  pupils  are  worth  more  than  the  best  ethical  solu- 
tions he  can  give  them.  The  value  of  the  work  will  come 
only  as  the  children  are  actively  thinking,  for  the  object  is 
not  to  give  them  ready-made  solutions  to  the  problems  of 
life,  or  impose  certain  maxims  and  precepts  upon  them, 
but  to  develop  the  habit  of  thoughtfully  deliberating  upon 


DIRECT   ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION  219 

moral  questions,  and  awaken  a  recognition  of  the  great 
principles  implicit  in  human  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  must  beware  of  making  children 
moral  casuists.  The  inexperienced  mind  loves  to  try  its 
strength  in  playing  with  those  subtle  problems  where  the 
intellect  with  equal  facility  can  attain  a  solution  in  either 
direction.  That  there  is  something  in  such  detached  rea- 
soning strongly  appealing  to  immature  minds  is  evident 
from  all  early  history  of  philosophy,  especially  among  the 
Greeks.  It  was  this  tendency  of  the  unfledged  intellect  to 
casuistry  Plato  perceived  in  the  pupils  of  the  sophists, 
leading  him  to  the  view  that  philosophy  should  not  be 
studied  by  the  young,  and  that  experience  and  hard  science 
(mathematics  in  his  thought)  should  alone  qualify  for  ad- 
mission to  her  portals.^  Plato  was  entirely  right:  philos- 
ophy should  follow  and  not  precede  experience.  Philos- 
ophy does  not  furnish  positive  knowledge;  its  function  is  to 
classify  and  organize  what  has  already  been  learned 
through  experience  or  positive  science. 

It  is  the  ignoring  of  this  principle  that  makes  so  many 
university  courses  in  ethics  and  philosophy  disintegrating 
to  the  character  of  the  student  and  paralyzing  to  his  moral 
action.  He  studies,  without  the  balance  of  large  experi- 
ence or  hard  science,  system  after  system,  each  exclusive 
of  all  the  rest.     Each  seems  satisfying  while  he  is  within  it, 


'  Compare  Plato's  Republic,  Jowett's  translation,  third  edition, 
p.  243: 

"There  is  danger  lest  they, should  taste  the  dear  delight  [of  dia- 
lectic] too  early;  for  youngsters,  as  you  may  have  observed,  when 
they  first  get  the  taste  in  their  mouths,  argue  for  amusement,  and 
are  always  contradicting  and  refuting  others  in  imitation  of  those 
who  refute  them ;  like  puppy-dogs,  they  rejoice  in  pulling  and  tearing 
at  all  who  come  near  them." 


220  MORAL   EDUCATION 

but  rarely  does  any  one  stand  out  as  finally  absolute.^ 
Thus  since  every  idea  and  course  of  action  may  have  its  ^ 
theoretic  justification,  he  finds  it  more  and  more  difficult  to  " 
choose  any  one.  ''Thought  expands,  but  lames;  action 
animates,  but  narrows"  said  Goethe.^  To  the  immature 
neophyte  in  philosophy  action  seems  terribly  intolerant, 
since  it  affirms  but  one  idea  out  of  the  multitude  the 
reason  recognizes  as  possible.  Yet  the  antinomies  of  the 
intellect  can  be  solved  only  in  practice.  Life  is  the  mar- 
velous solvent  that  fuses  in  its  mystic  fluid,  elements 
which  to  the  intellect  seem  irreconcilably  opposed.  To 
escape  the  confusion  and  negation  which  result  from 
processes  of  detached  thinking,  through  w^hich  almost 
anything  can  be  made  to  seem  true  and  right,  we  choose 
in  action  the  one  thing  we  believe  to  be  best. 

Thus  we  must  return  to  our  initial  thought  in  this  dis- 
cussion: all  ethical  instruction  must  be  carefully  subor- 
dinated to  moral  action  and  made  directly  contributory  to 
the  latter.  Only  thus  can  it  be  helpful,  or  indeed  safe, 
since  only  so  can  we  avoid  the  vice  of  moral  casuistry, 
alluring  in  proportion  to  the  immaturity  of  the  learner's 
mind.  There  is  obviously  a  fine  balance  to  be  attained 
here:  the  reason  is  to  be  cultivated  and  trained,  yet  held 
to  its  regular  function  and  never  allowed  to  become  a 
means  of  moral  confusion.  The  child  must  be  brouirht  to 
recognize  clearly  those  great  underlying  principles  of  happy 
and  helpful  conduct  upon  which  we  may  all  agree  without 
moral  casuistry.  The  teacher  must,  therefore,  choose  the 
subjects  for  these  ethical  discussions  with  direct  reference 

*  If  one  system  does  seem  absolute  to  the  immature  student  he  is 
apt  to  fall  into  the  opposite  error  and  become  a  slavish  adherent  of  it. 

^  Wilhelm  Meister's  Apprenticeship,  Carlyle's  translation,  vol.  II, 
chapter  V,  p.  126. 


DIRECT   ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION  221 

to  the  opportunities  of  the  children  in  moral  action.  Many 
of  the  talks  may  well  deal  with  those  questions  of  school 
organization  and  government  discussed  in  chapters  XIII 
and  XIV;  and  thus  not  only  contribute  to  the  order  of  the 
little  society,  but  aid  greatly  in  developing  the  independ- 
ent, self-directing  type  of  moral  action.  Further,  the 
incidents,  laws  and  characters  studied  in  the  ordinary 
work  of  the  school  in  literature,  history  and  natural 
science  furnish  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  material  for  ex- 
tending and  vitalizing  these  ethical  talks. 

To  carry  out  such  a  program  of  direct  ethical  instruction 
as  I  have  outlined  demands  wisdom,  time  and  thought  on 
the  part  of  parents  and  teachers.  It  is  the  old  story: 
"nothing  great  without  effort;"  in  proportion  to  the  good 
that  may  come  from  the  work  is  the  severity  of  its  demand 
in  preparation.  If,  as  I  have  shown,  it  is  undesirable  to 
follow  the  logical  outline  of  the  ethical  subject-matter  in 
the  discussions  with  children,  it  is  the  more  necessary  that 
the  parent  or  teacher  should  have  such  a  complete  logical 
organization  of  the  material  in  the  background  of  his  own 
consciousness.  He  must  not  only  know  what  he  may  hope 
to  accomplish  and  have  a  clear  conception  of  the  method 
by  which  he  should  set  about  it,  he  must  have  come  to 
terms  with  the  universe  intellectually  and  have  formulated 
in  some  measure  a  conscious  philosophy  of  life.  He  must 
see  intellectually  the  great  ends  of  human  conduct,  the 
path  by  which  those  ends  may  be  attained,  and  the  laws 
that  condition  us  in  following  the  path.  That  the  thought 
and  study,  necessary  to  our  preparation  for  the  ethical 
teaching  of  our  children,  are  illuminating  and  educative  to 
ourselves  in  the  highest  degree,  is  another  truth,  aside 
from  our  problem,  though  greatly  comforting. 


XX 


ETHICAL    INSTRUCTION    THROUGH    OTHER 

SUBJECTS:  HISTORY 

I  HAVE  outlined  the  most  direct  form  of  ethical  instruc- 
tion, that  which  is  given  by  talks  with  children  in  home  and 
school.  The  work  thus  done  must  be  supplemented  and 
its  results  multiplied  by  the  use  of  other  subjects  of  study. 
Indeed,  the  vitality  of  our  instruction  will  depend  mainly 
upon  our  wise  use  of  these  less  direct  sources.  Beyond 
the  moral  discipline  which  comes  from  doing  intellectual 
tasks  honestly  and  accurately,  almost  every  subject  of 
study  has  some  ethical  implications.  Take,  for  instance, 
so  non-moral  a  subject  as  mathematics :  the  ideal  accuracy 
of  its  statements  and  the  absolute  universality  with  which 
its  laws  may  be  applied  tend  insensibly  to  cultivate  rever- 
ence for  truth  and  appreciation  of  the  unity  of  law.  Much 
broader  is  the  ethical  instruction  resulting  from  the  study 
of  nature.  Whether  as  organized  science,  or  as  the  sim- 
pler, more  general  study  possible  to  childhood,  it  is  this 
phase  of  our  school  program  that  furnishes  our  best  oppor- 
tunity to  teach  an  intellectual  recognition  of  law  and  a 
reverence  for  law.  Thus  the  study  of  nature  accomplishes 
for  the  intellect  in  ethical  instruction  exactly  what  we 
found  active  contact  with  nature  did  for  the  cultivation  of 
the  habit  of  obedience.  It  is  true,  higher  laws  appear  in 
human  life  than  we  can  discover  in  nature,  and  the  prin- 


ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION  THROUGH  HISTORY  223 

ciples  that  govern  alike  man  and  beast  may  be  trans- 
figured in  their  appUcation  to  the  actions  of  human  beings; 
nevertheless,  the  great,  simple  conditions  of  existence  are 
revealed  in  their  most  direct  and  impressive  form  in  nature. 
The  necessity  for  constant  struggle,  the  sure  setting  in  of 
degeneration  the  moment  positive  effort  ceases,  the  re- 
morseless demand  of  obediecice  to  the  order  of  the  universe, 
the  growth  and  harmony  that  result  from  such  obedience, 
the  kinship  of  all  living  beings  and  the  unity  in  the  moral 
problems  of  life:  these  ethical  lessons  can  be  driven  home 
through  the  study  of  nature  as  in  no  other  way.  To  prove 
this,  one  need  but  point  to  the  vastly  wider  acceptance  of 
these  teachings  among  adults  today  as  a  direct  result 
of  modern  physical  science. 

In  teaching  nature  to  children  it  is  as  necessary  to  avoid 
moralizing  as  in  other  forms  of  ethical  instruction.  Draw- 
ing moral  and  intellectual  lessons  from  nature  in  the  old 
Sandford  and  Merton^  style  is  not  desirable,  though 
there  are  many  worse  books  than  Sandford  and  Merton. 
The  need  is  to  waken  children  to  a  recognition  of  reality, 
that  is,  of  fact  and  law  as  these  appear  in  the  nature 
world.  If  we  can  bring  children  to  understand  the  inex- 
orable sequence  and  appreciate  the  regular  harmony  of 
nature  no  further  sermon  need  be  added. 

Clearly,  only  the  more  simple  and  universal  laws  govern- 
ing human  life  appear  in  the  study  of  nature.  The  highest 
laws,  those  most  important  in  the  human  field,  can  be  dis- 
covered only  by  studying  that  field.  Therefore  it  is  a 
grave  error  to    depend  solely  upon    nature    for   ethical 


^  See  Thomas  Day,  The  History  of  Sandford  and  Merton— -^'sl.  book 
replete  with  information  and  of  unimpeachable  morality,"  as  it  is 
characterized  in  the  preliminary  sketch  of  the  life  of  Thomas  Day. 


224  MORAL   EDUCATION 

instruction.  Her  morality  is  merely  prudential.  She  sanc- 
tions absolute  conformity  to  the  accident,  as  well  as  the 
permanent  elements,  of  environment, — conformity  gained 
through  every  kind  of  deceit.  If  in  brute  motherhood  she 
rises  above  the  coarsely  egoistic  plane,  this  is  only  through 
blind  instinct.  Conscious  love,  justice  and  self-sacrifice, 
the  willingness  to  stand  heroically  for  principle  and  be  out 
of  harmony  w^ith  the  accident  of  environment  for  the  sake 
of  obedience  to  underlying  law,  the  morality  that  is  not 
merely  prudential  but  springs  in  obedience  to  lofty,  inte- 
grating aims:  these  phases  of  moral  life  appear  only  in 
humanity.  Thus  ethically  speaking,  "the  chief  study  of 
mankind"  must  always  be  "man;"  and  for  the  purposes 
of  ethical  instruction,  nothing  else  can  approach  in  value 
the  expressions  of  human  life.  Indeed,  the  neglect  of  the 
humanities, — as  the  studies  dealing  with  man's  thought 
and  action,  rather  than  rhetoric  and  the  languages,  should 
be  called, — and  the  great  development  of  physical  science 
during  the  last  fifty  years,  are  partly  responsible  for  the 
hard  materialistic  temper  and  the  adhesion  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  brute  struggle  and  the  survival  of  the  materially 
powerful,  which  mark  certain  aspects  of  our  civilization. 

Thus  in  teaching  children  w^e  should  err  gravely  if  we 
utilized  nature  as  the  main  source  of  material  for  indirect 
ethical  instruction.  It  is  the  expressions  of  human  life  we 
must  use  chiefly;  and  two  subjects  in  the  curriculum  below 
the  high  school  are  especially  available.  These  are: 
history  and  literature;  and  we  shall  find  them  singularly 
complementary  to  each  other  for  our  purpose.  With  the 
modern  expansion  of  the  course  of  study,  other  expressions 
of  man's  life  have  been  admitted,  as  material  from  paint- 
ing, sculpture  and  music,  social  and  economic  science. 


ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION   THROUGH   HISTORY  225 

History  and  literature,  however,  are  almost  always  avail- 
able throughout  the  curriculum,  and  they  of  all  humanistic 
subjects  alone  are  so;  thus  they  must  furnish  the  main 
opportunity  for  the  study  of  human  life.  Moreover,  as 
they  show  fully  the  ethical  value  of  all  humanistic 
studies,  we  may  well   focus  our  discussion  upon  them. 

History  is  the  record  of  what  men  have  done.  It  may 
be  interpreted  so  broadly  as  to  include  all  expressions  of  the 
human  spirit,  but  usually  we  limit  it  to  the  deeds  of  men 
in  private  and  public  life  and  the  development  of  political 
institutions.  Thus  interpreted  let  us  consider  the  different 
aspects  in  which  history  is  of  value  for  ethical  instruction 
and  moral  culture. 

1.  History  shows  the  moral  law  in  action.  There  are  no 
accidents  in  the  rise  and  fall  of  nations,  even  if  we  take 
extreme  cases  where  a  people  seems  to  suffer  from  the 
greed  of  others,  as  in  the  rise  of  Napoleon  or  the  partition 
of  Poland.  Always  the-  victim  cooperates  in  his  doom. 
In  all  the  past  every  element  of  manhood,  self-control, 
heroism,  fidelity  has  made  for  life;  and  every  element  of 
brutal  selfishness,  capricious  sensuality,  cowardly  expe- 
diency has  made  for  death.  We  do  not  need  to  preach 
about  history  to  bring  home  its  moral  teachings.  To 
draw  pleasant,  little,  ^Esop  morals  from  the  great  move- 
ments of  the  past— the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tides  of  life- 
would  be  to  degrade  the  noble  material  we  are  studying, 
like  making  a  lion  do  petty  tricks  in  a  cage.^     The  need  is 

*  "No  practical  application  need  be  added,  no  moral  brought  out; 
the  related  incident  of  life,  in  itself,  in  whatever  form  it  may  appear, 
in  its  caus^  and  consequences,  makes  a  deeper  impression  than  any- 
added  words  could  do  ;  for  who  can  know  the  needs  of  the  wholly 
opened  soul,  of  stimulated,  wholly  self-conscious  life." — Froebel, 
The  Education  of  Man,  Hailmann's  translation,  p.  308. 


226  MORAL   EDUCATION 

that  the  student  should  appreciate  the  past  and  recognize 
the  laws  that  prevail  in  it.  Surely  history  teaches  its  own 
ethical  lessons  to  every  one  who  sees  its  facts  and  laws. 
The  steady  advance  of  Rome  while  resting  on  an  heroic 
type  of  manhood  and  womanhood,  the  rapid  disintegration 
of  her  empire  with  the  rotting  of  personal  character,  the 
persistence  of  tiny,  freedom-loving  Switzerland  in  the  lap 
of  the  empires  of  Europe,  the  flowering  of  English  litera- 
ture with  the  unifying  of  English  sentiment  and  patriotism 
in  the  days  of  Elizabeth,  the  springing  of  America  from 
the  devotion  of  a  few  small  groups  of  earnest  men  and 
women:  surely  we  do  not  need  to  moralize  about  these 
facts  to  give  them  an  ethical  value.  The  student  needs 
only  to  see  them  in  relation  to  law;  and  to  seek  to  abstract 
the  implicit  moral  meaning  and  set  it  apart  as  a  *  lesson ' 
is  like  cutting  up  a  man  to  find  his  soul:  with  Descartes 
we  might  isolate  the  pineal  gland;  but  the  soul — I 

2.  Besides  the  ethical  instruction  that  comes  from  per- 
ceiving the  laws  ruling  in  past  life,  history  contains  innu- 
merable heroic  incidents  which  show  the  principles  of  noble 
living  in  concrete  form.  Not  only  do  these  teach  children 
the  meaning  of  virtue  in  the  most  impressive  way,  they 
present  examples  for  imitation  and  inspire  the  learner  to 
follow.  The  behavior  of  Socrates  before  his  judges  or  of 
Giordano  Bruno  at  the  stake,  the  conduct  of  the  Lacedae- 
monians at  Thermopylae  or  of  the  American  farmers  at 
Bunker  Hill,  Sir  Philip  Sydney  dying,  offering  the  cup  of 
water  to  the  wounded  soldier  beside  him,  or  Sir  Thomas 
More  going  to  his  death  for  the  sake  of  conscience:  inci- 
dents like  these  reveal  the  depth  of  the  moral  life  of  man- 
kind as  flashes  of  lightning  illuminate  a  dark  forest  at 
night.    They  not  only  show  what  is  noble  action,  but 


ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION  THROUGH   HISTORY  227 

« 

touch  us  with  the  contagion  of  heroic  deeds,  thus  making 
for  moral  culture  as  well  as  ethical  instruction. 

3.  Heroic  incidents  are  but  fragments  in  the  life  of  man 
or  nation;  more  significant  than  they  in  moral  value  are 
the  great  personalities  of  history,  the  men  and  women  in 
whom  the  tendencies  of  the  past  find  their  highest  expres- 
sion. Without  agreeing  with  Carlyle  that  history  is  the 
work  of  great  men,  certainly  we  must  recognize  that  all 
movements  of  humanity  find  their  expression  only  through 
the  medium  of  personality.  After  all,  history  is  made  of 
the  entire  sum  of  the  deeds  of  the  countless  men  and 
women;  and  among  them  all,  the  great  individuals,  rising 
on  the  waves  of  popular  tendency  and  in  turn  molding 
the  multitude  who  lift  them,  are  the  best  keys  to  the  life 
of  the  past. 

Among  these  great  individuals  are  many  who  serve  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree  as  types  of  the  moral  ideal,  thus  giv- 
ing concrete  form  to  our  conception  of  noble  living,  and 
inspiring  imitation — the  true  imitation  of  the  spirit,  not 
the  form,  of  lofty  action — far  more  powerfully  than  can 
single  incidents.  Indeed,  the  pov/er  of  great  personaHties 
in  history  to  touch  the  child  with  that  marvelous  con- 
tagion of  the  spirit,  is  surpassed  only  by  the  personal 
influence  of  the  individuals  with  whom  the  child  is 
immediately  associated .  ^ 

4.  It  is  not  only  the  good  men  and  women  who  instruct 
us  ethically,  however.  In  the  lives  of  those  who  have  done 
much  evil,  moral  laws  are  no  less  clearly  expressed.  There 
is  widespread  misunderstanding  in  regard  to  teaching  by 


^  See  a  suggestive  article  on  The  Use  of  Biography  in  Religious 
Instruction,  by  Professor  F.  M.  McMurry,  in  Prindyles  of  Religiox.s 
Education,  by  N.  M.  Butler^  et  al.,  pp.  193-211. 


228  MORAL  EDUCATION 

example.  It  is  said  that  we  should  never  teach  by  base 
examples.  The  comparison  with  expression  in  language 
is  cited;  and  as  children  acquire  good  speech  by  hearing 
nothing  else,  so  it  is  said  they  should  come  into  contact 
only  with  examples  of  good  conduct.  The  analogy  holds 
up  to  a  certain  point,  but  is  misleading  unless  carefully 
interpreted.  It  is  true,  the  problem  of  instruction  in  the 
mother  tongue  is  much  lightened  if  young  children  hear 
only  good  language;  and  so  our  moral  problem  is  greatly 
simplified  if  the  people,  young  and  old,  associated  with 
children,  are  positively  good.  On  the  other  hand,  when  an 
individual  arrives  at  the  age  when  it  is  possible  for  him 
to  understand  the  principles  of  language  theoretically, 
those  principles  will  explain  at  once  good  and  bad  usage 
for  him,  and  the  correct  and  false  syntax  will  be  defined, 
if  not  in  terms  of  each  other,  at  least  in  relation  to  each 
other.  So  in  the  moral  world  the  tree  of  knowledge  is  one 
of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  An  intellectual  conception 
of  either  will  involve  a  conception  of  the  other,  since  they 
limit  each  other.  Thus  the  law  is  revealed  as  clearly  in  its 
violation  as  in  an  act  of  obedience  to  it.  When  evil  is  por- 
trayed in  its  native  ugliness  and  hideous  consequences  it  is 
instructive  to  the  intellect  without  being  attractive  to  the 
sensibility.  It  is  only  when  evil  is  dressed  out  in  an  ad- 
ventitious garb  of  false  beauty  that  it  becomes  seductive, 
because  misleading  to  the  emotions.  Thus  the  student  can 
safely  consider  the  evil  deeds  and  characters  of  the  past 
if  he  considers  them  only  in  the  proportion  they  sustain  to 
the  good,  and  if  they  are  seen  in  their  true  relation  to  the 
whole  of  life.  In  so  far  as  their  place  is  exaggerated  or  the 
perception  of  that  relation  is  lost  will  they  become  danger- 
ous.    Herbart  understood  this  better  than  most  educa- 


ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION   THROUGH    HISTORY  229 

tional  philosophers,  as  is  evidenced  in  the  following  pas- 
sage from  his  Science  of  Education  (Felkin's  translation, 
p.  88) : 

"  Show  the  bad  to  children  plainly,  but  not  as  an  object  of 
desire,  and  they  will  recognize  that  it  is  bad.  Interrupt  a 
narrative  with  moral  precepts,  and  they  will  find  you  a 
wearisome  narrator.  Relate  only  what  is  good,  and  they 
will  feel  it  monotonous,  and  the  mere  charm  of  variety  will 
make  the  bad  welcome." 

Returning  to  the  thought  later  in  the  same  treatise  Her- 
bart  wisely  applies  the  principle  to  the  relation  of  the  youth 
to  his  contemporaries  (p.  227) : 

"How  ever  extreme  the  necessity  may  be  that  a  youth 
should  never  become  familiar  with  the  bad,  protection  of 
moral  feeling  need  not  be  carried  so  far  (at  least  not  con- 
tinued so  long)  as  to  make  youths  amazed  at  men  as  they 
are.  Bad  company  is  certainly  infectious,  and  almost  as 
much  so  is  a  pleasing  lingering  of  the  imagination  on  at- 
tractive representations  of  the  bad.  But  to  have  known 
men  in  early  life,  in  all  their  many  varieties,  ensures  an 
early  exercise  of  moral  judgment,  as  well  as  a  valuable 
security  against  dangerous  surprises.  And  vivid  repre- 
sentations of  those  that  were,  give  doubtless  the  readiest 
preparation  for  the  observation  of  those  that  are,  only  the 
past  must  be  sufficiently  illuminated,  so  that  its  men  may 
appear  men  like  ourselves,  and  not  beings  of  another 
species." 

It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  humanity  is  not  made 
up  of  characters  that  are  entirely  good  or  bad ;  on  the  con- 
trary, the  majority  of  human  beings  are  of  mingled  char- 
acter, showing  good  and  evil  together.  The  element  of 
evil  mixed  up  with  the  good  is  instructive  just  as  in  a 


230  MORAL    EDUCATION 

character  typically  bad.  Nevertheless,  if  evil  reveals  the 
laws  governing  life  hardly  less  instructively  than  good, 
it  is  the  positively  good  life,  or  element  of  life,  that  alone 
exercises  the  inspiring  influence   upon   us. 

5.  There  is  one  aspect  of  this  positive  moral  influence 
that  is  particularly  important,  namely,  the  cultivation  of 
reverence  for  moral  leadership,  that  is,  an  appreciation 
of  the  character  and  service  of  those  men  who  have  been 
not  merely  great,  but  who  have  dedicated  themselves  to 
the  service  of  humanity.  This  spirit  is  in  a  democracy 
at  once  most  necessary  and  most  difficult  to  cultivate. 
Democracies  are  notoriously  fickle  and  usually  irreverent. 
With  a  low  admiration  for  men  who  succeed,  merely 
because  they  succeed,  without  asking  how  they  won  power 
or  for  what  ends  they  use  it,  democracies  show  a  jealousy 
of  the  true  moral  leaders  because  such  men  rebuke  us  by 
the  character  of  their  lives.  Li  the  end  the  people  come 
to  recognize  the  true  servant  of  humanity.  Already  we 
know  the  place  of  Washington  and  Lincoln;  but  in  their 
day  what  misunderstanding,  calumny  and  abuse  they  had 
to  endure.  Yet  it  is  just  in  free  societies  that  moral  leader- 
ship is  most  necessar)%  other^'ise  the  demagogue  and 
selfish  time-server  can  render  futile  or  even  destroy  the 
most  cherished  institutions.  Thus  in  any  democracy, 
the  opportunity  the  study  of  history  gives  for  cultivating 
reverence  for  moral  leadership  is  of  the  highest  signifi- 
cance in  developing  the  type  of  character  necessary  for 
the  stability  and  progress  of  free  institutions. 

6.  Closely  akin  to  this  moral  result  is  the  value  of 
national  history  in  cultivating  true  patriotism.  One 
hesitates  to  use  the  word  patriotism  since,  like  that  other 
good  word,  love,  it  is  used  for  so  many  wrong  attitudes 


ETHICAL    INSTRUCTION   THROUGH   HISTORY  231 

that  one  must  define  it  anew.  True  patriotism  does  not 
mean  enthusiastic  speeches  and  shouting  when  the  soldiers 
come  home.  It  does  not  *go  with  the  country'  under 
the  inspiration  of  the  mob's  passion  or  the  popular  hero's 
guidance,  without  asking  whether  the  country  is  right  or 
wrong.  It  is  as  ready  to  weep  over  a  national  crime  as  to 
exult  in  national  heroism,  to  rebuke  the  passion  of  the 
mob  or  the  selfishness  of  the  demagogue  as  to  move  with 
the  people  when  'the  voice  of  the  people'  is  indeed  'the 
voice  of  God.'  It  is  sober,  quiet,  thoughtful,  including 
not  only  love  of  country,  but  an  appreciation  of  the  ideals 
for  which  the  nation  stands,  and  an  understanding  of  the 
measure  of  success  and  failure  in  realizing  those  ideals 
hitherto.  Such  patriotism  is  more  necessary  in  times  of 
peace  than  in  times  of  war;  for  in  war-time  everyone's 
pulses  are  stirred  with  the  need  of  the  nation,  but  in  times 
of  peace,  when  the  high  call  rings  less  clear  and  the  pres- 
sure of  private  interests  is  intense,  then  indeed  the  spirit 
of  unselfish  public  service  is  most  needed. 

Such  patriotism  is  cultivated  not  by  talking  about  it 
or  urging  it  upon  children,  but  by  bringing  the  child  into 
appreciative  contact  with  the  instructive  and  uplifting 
expressions  of  the  national  spirit  and  ideal.  Among 
these,  the  great  characters  and  deeds  of  the  nation's  past 
are  of  first  importance. 

7.  There  is  a  nobler  spirit  than  patriotism,  great  and 
good  as  that  is.  As  the  history  of  the  national  spirit  in 
all  its  expressions,  whether  in  the  movements  of  the 
people  or  the  lives  of  men  and  women,  is  our  best  means 
of  cultivating  true  patriotism,  so  the  history  of  the  human 
spirit,  interpreted  in  the  same  broad  way,  is  our  oppor- 
tunity to  cultivate  that  larger  cosmopolitan  and  human- 


232  MORAL   EDUCATION 

itarian  spirit  so  much  needed  for  the  next  movement  in 
the  Hfe  of  mankind.  We  in  America,  especially,  if  we 
are  to  fulfill  our  mission,  with  no  loss  of  love  for  our 
country,  need  to  rise  to  the  true  conception  of  human 
brotherhood,  recognizing  that  there  can  be  no  good  for 
one  nation,  any  more  than  for  one  individual,  that  is  not 
in  harmony  with  the  good  of  all.  As  the  national  history 
is  a  great  means  for  cultivating  true  patriotism,  so  the 
larger  history  of  the  human  spirit,  incarnated  in  the  men 
and  deeds  of  many  nations,  is  one  avenue  through  which 
we  may  develop  the  true  humanitarian  attitude.  One 
who  has  followed  the  enthusiastic  awakening  of  Germany, 
listening  to  the  call  of  Fichte  and  the  stirring  songs  of 
Schiller,  will  recognize  the  unity  of  German  life  and 
aspirations  with  deep  elements  of  our  own.  One  who 
has  wandered  through  Italy  with  Dante,  or  accompanied 
Giordano  Bruno  on  his  world-pilgrimage  and  heard  his 
ringing  words  at  the  stake,  who  has  listened  to  the  teach- 
ing of  sweet  Saint  Francis  and  the  terrible  prophecies  of 
the  dark  Florentine  patriot,  Savonarola,  can  hardly  despise 
the  poor  Italian  who  lands  upon  our  shores,  but  will  love 
him  for  what  he  might  have  been. 

To  make  history  morally  educative  in  the  different  ways 
I  have  outlined,  it  is  essential  that  the  student  should  come 
to  have  a  realizing  sense  of  the  past.  Every  teacher 
knows  how  difficult  it  is  to  awaken  this.  Often  the  char- 
acters of  history  are  to  us  dim  phantoms  moving  across 
a  white  mist  and  the  great  deeds  of  the  past  are  no  more 
real  and  human  than  the  faint  figures  in  half-forgotten 
dreams.  If  the  laws  that  rule  in  history  are  to  teach 
their  ethical  lesson,  if  the  great  characters  are  to  lift, 
inspire  and  instruct  us  as  they  may,  we  must  appreciate 


ETHICAL   INSTRUCTION  THROUGH   HISTORY  233 

the  past  as  alive,  realizing  that  every  recorded  deed 
sprang  from  human  beings  like  ourselves,  moved  by  the 
same  hopes,  aspirations  and  fears,  thwarted  by  the  same 
weaknesses  and  failures.  Herein  is  the  worth,  in  the 
hands  of  a  wise  teacher,  of  all  the  little  and  great  ex- 
pressions and  associations  of  personality.  A  portrait,  a 
photograph  of  some  historic  place,  a  letter  or  fragment 
of  the  hero's  diary,  even  a  reUc,  as  the  sword  of  Washing-\ 
ton  or  the  tree  under  which  he  stood,  will  at  times  sud- 
denly transfigure  the  past  and  give  its  dim  phantoms 
pulsating  life,  one  with  our  own.  It  is  then,  as  Lowell 
says,  that 

"The  statue  shrined  and  still 

In  that  gray  minster-front  we  call  the  Past, 

Feels  in  its  frozen  veins  our  pulses  thrill. 

Breathes  living  air  and  mocks  at  Death's  deceit. 

It  warms,  it  stirs,  comes  down  to  us  at  last, 

Its  features  human  with  familiar  light, 

A  man,  beyond  the  historian's  art  to  kill, 

Or  sculptor's  to  efface  with  patient  chisel-blight."^ 

Thus  we  come  to  see  that  all  great  movements  of  history 
are  resolvable  into  elements  of  which  the  unit  is  the  indi- 
vidual life.  So  the  chapters  of  the  past  are  read  in  terms 
of  the  persons  who  make  them  up,  and  its  teaching  is 
brought  home  to  us  as  individual  human  beings. 

There  is  one  other  important  need  if  history  is  to  fulfill 
its  function  in  relation  to  moral  culture.  We  must 
utilize  the  subject  more  widely  and  interpret  it  more 
broadly  than  is  done  today.  It  is  unfortunate  that 
history  is  so  often  limited  to  the  record  of  wars  and  political 

*  Under  the  Old  Elm,  canto  II,  stanza  II. 


234  MORAL   EDUCATION 

changes.  These  are  important  expressions  of  the  human 
spirit,  but  there  are  many  others  at  least  equally  important 
if  history  is  to  interpret  life  in  relation  to  law  and  bring 
the  student  into  contact  with  the  great  personalities  in  the 
past.  We  must  not  only  deal  much  more  with  biography, 
especially  in  the  earlier  period  of  education,  but  with  the 
biography  of  leaders  in  other  fields  besides  war  and  states- 

fmanship.  Since  one  moral  function  of  the  study  of  the 
great  lives  of  the  past  is  to  inspire  children  with  lofty  ideals, 
surely  we  do  not  want  them  to  think  that  ideal  service  is 
possible  only  in  those  two  public  vocations.  For  instance, 
in  American  history  we  teach  the  career  of  General 
Grant.  He  was  a  man  of  iron  will,  and  such  will  is 
needed  in  the  service  of  society.  Yet  is  it  not  equally 
necessary,  if  a  child's  reverence  is  to  be  developed  for 
what  is  really  worthy  of  imitation,  that  he  should  know 
something  of  such  an  American  citizen  as  Emerson,  not 
as  a  writer  merely,  but  as  a  man,  who  lived  consistently 
to  his  own  ideal  throughout  a  quiet  but  pubUcly  useful 
life? 

Is  it  not,  moreover,  a  pity  that  our  histories  deal  so 
exclusively  with  men,  ignoring  the  contribution  of  women, 
except  in  those  rare  cases  where  women  have  been  promi- 
nent in  war  and  politics?  It  is  true,  the  contagion  of 
noble  living  is  effective  above  the  plane  of  sex  or  vocation. 
Girls  may  be  wakened  to  ideal  effort  no  less  than  boys, 
by  the  lives  of  great  men;  since  always  it  is  desirable,  let 
me  repeat,  not  to  imitate  the  form  of  the  action  but  to  rise 
to  the  spirit  behind  it.  Still,  as  children  of  both  sexes 
need  the  influence  of  men  and  women  alike,  in  home  and 
school  life,  so  in  the  study  of  history  they  should  be  brought 
into  appreciative  contact  with  the  lives  of  both  women  and 


ETHICAL    INSTRUCTION   THROUGH   HISTORY  235 

men,  in  all  possible  forms  of  human  service  and  moral 
heroism.^ 

Thus  history,  interpreted  in  this  larger,  more  human 
way,  should  have  a  place  in  the  curriculum  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  the  school  work.  Only  so  can 
we  utilize  it  fully,  not  only  for  ethical  instruction  through 
the  study  of  human  life,  collective  and  individual,  in 
relation  to  law,  but  for  the  higher  end  of  moral  awakening 
and  development  through  vital  contact  with  noble  men 
and  heroic  deeds. 


^  Compare,  with  reference  to  the  whole  problem  of  utilizing  history 
and  literature  for  molding  ideals,  the  following  inductive  studies: 

EsTELLE  M.  Darrah,  A  Study  of  Children's  Ideals,  Popular 
Science  Monthly,  vol.  LIII,  pp.  88-98;  Earl  Barnes,  Children's 
Ideals,  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  VII,  pp.  1-12;  Earl  Barnes, 
Type  Study  on  Ideals,  running  through  nine  numbers  of  Studies  in 
Education,  vol.  II.     The  last  is  a  particularly  illuminating  study. 


XXI 


THE  ETHICAL  VALUE  OF  MYTHOLOGY  AND 

FOLK-LORE 

There  is  one  body  of  material  that  is  at  once  history  and 
literature,  yet  not  strictly  either,  and  which  has  a  special 
value  in  moral  education,  namely,  the  expressions  of  primi- 
tive life  in  mythology  and  folk-lore.  This  material 
deserves  separate  consideration  not  only  because  of  its 
importance  for  moral  culture,  but  because  its  place  and 
meaning  have  recently  been  obscured  and  misunderstood. 
The  discovery  of  the  biological  parallel  between  individual 
and  race  development  led  to  extreme  and  unwarranted 
educational  applications,  while  the  reaction  against  these 
extremes  has  disgusted  many  thoughtful  teachers  with  all 
attempts  to  make  use  of  the  material  of  primitive  life. 
This  material  comes  to  us  in  the  shape  of  the  earliest 
written  literature,  taken  down  and  given  final  form  by 
poets,  after  being  passed  on  from  generation  to  generation 
through  centuries  of  time.  Thus  it  is  never  the  work  of 
an  individual,  but  the  refined  and  condensed  product  of 
many  generations  in  the  race  life.  Their  mythology  was 
not  only  art  and  religion  to  primitive  men,  but,  as  far  as 
they  possessed  them,  science  and  philosophy.  Events  of 
history  and  operations  of  nature  were  alike  transmuted 
into  the  body  of  poetic  legend,  the  one  storehouse  of 
thought,  feeling  and  imagination  in  primitive  times. 


THE  ETHICAL  VALUE  OF  MYTHOLOGY  AND  FOLK-LORE  237 

As  the  one  great  intellectual  and  artistic  expression  of 
life,  this  body  of  mythology  was  naturally  regarded  with 
deep  and  increasing  reverence.  In  the  early  period  of 
their  formation,  legends  would  be  treated  with  much  free- 
dom by  minstrels  and  poets  who  sang  and  told  them,  even 
by  grandmothers  who  related  them  to  children  about  the 
hearthstone;  but  as  the  sanctity  of  antiquity  gathered 
about  the  stories,  they  would  be  changed  less  and  less, 
only  a  slight  refining  and  polishing  coming  in  later  ages. 
Thus  the  legend  would  keep  its  integrity,  but  gain  in 
artistic  truth  and  beauty.  Moreover,  primitive  men  stood 
closer  to  nature  and  the  simple  realities  of  human  life  than 
do  we.  They  depended  for  their  existence  immediately 
upon  the  orderly  activities  of  nature — the  sunshine,  the 
rain,  the  regular  succession  of  the  seasons.  They  rose 
when  the  morning  was  gray,  and  the  mystery  of  the  birth 
of  light,  as  the  rosy-fingered  dawn  spread  over  the  sky, 
was  an  ever-present  miracle  to  them.  Their  work  was  in 
immediate  contact  with  the  objective  forces  of  the  universe, 
no  garment  of  convention  obscured  the  simple,  if  some- 
times dark,  meaning  of  their  love  and  worship. 

Thus  the  expression  and  interpretation  of  their  lives  in 
the  simple  art  of  mythology  was  naturally  true  and  vital 
in  content  and  form  alike.  Their  senses  were  keen  and 
true,  the  basal  elements  of  human  nature  were  powerful 
in  them.  They  thought,  as  all  poets  do,  in  concrete 
images,  not  arbitrary  symbols,  and  thus,  relating  what  they 
saw  and  heard,  their  phrase  flamed  with  material  meta- 
phor. All  early  language  is  metaphorical,  all  words 
applied  to  the  mind  and  spirit  had  originally  an  immediate 
physical  meaning;  it  is  the  receding  of  the  tide  of  imagina- 
tion that  compels  us  to  do  in  a  phrase  what  primitive 


238  MORAL   EDUCATION*    ' 

language  accomplished  in  a  single  word.  Thus  the  art 
in  primitive  mythology,  if  instinctive  rather  than  con- 
scious, is  nevertheless  art  of  a  high  kind.  It  drives  home 
the  heart  of  the  story,  proportions  the  other  incidents 
about  this  centre,  uses  repetition  for  dramatic  emphasis, 
seizes  the  illuminating  metaphor,  associates  its  concep- 
tions with  a  natural  music  that  is  their  emotional  counter- 
part, utilizes  nature  as  a  living  language  to  clothe  the 
conceptions  of  man's  heart.  To  find  the  equal  of  this 
art  in  vitality  we  must  turn  to  the  literature  of  the  great 
individual  masters  of  later  times.  ^ 

Equally  strong  is  the  truth  of  primitive  art  in  expressing 
and  interpreting  simple  human  experience.  There  are 
two  different  meanings  to  the  word  '* truth:"  the  truth  of 
history  is  the  truth  of  incident;  the  truth  of  poetry  is  the 
truth  of  character.^  History  tells  what  happened;  art 
shows  what,  given  a  definite  character  and  certain  circum- 
stances, must  have  happened.  Thus  there  can  be  a  true 
fairy-tale  or  a  false.  A  false  fairy-tale  is  one  that  merely 
presents  a  jumble  of  imagined  incidents,  interesting  enough 

^  "Upon  the  whole  I  conclude  with  this:  the  wisdom  of  the  jirimi- 
tive  ages  was  either  great  or  lucky;  great,  if  they  knew  what  they 
were  doing  and  invented  the  figure  to  shadow  the  meaning;  lucky, 
if  without  meaning  or  intending  it  they  fell  upon  matter  which  gives 
occasion  to  such  worthy  contemplation." — Bacon,  Preface  to  The 
Wisdom  of  the  Ancients  (translated),  Works  of  Francis  Bacon,  edited 
by  Spedding,  et  al.,  vol.  XIII,  p.  80.  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Bos- 
ton, no  date. 

^  Compare  Aristotle,  Poetic,  translated  by  Buckley  (George  Bell 
&  Sons,  London,  1890),  chapter  IX,  sections  2  and  3: 

' '  For  an  historian  and  a  poet  do  not  differ  from  each  other,  because 
the  one  WTites  in  verse  and  the  other  in  prose.  *  *  *  g^j^  they 
differ  in  this,  that  the  one  speaks  of  things  which  have  happened, 
and  the  other  of  such  as  might  have  happened.  Hence  poetry  is 
more  philosophic,  and  more  deserving  of  attention,  than  histor3\ 
For  poetry  speaks  more  of  universals,  but  history  of  particulars." 


THE  ETHICAL  VALUE  OF  MYTHOLOGY  AND  FOLK-LORE  239 

perhaps  in  themselves,  but  with  no  order  or  inner  connec- 
tion among  them.  A  true  fairy-tale  takes  a  definite  char- 
acter, puts  him  in  unusual  circumstances  or  annuls  certain 
ordinary  limitations  of  time  and  space,  and  then  asks,  and 
answers  truly,  "What  will  the  character  do?''  Primitive 
mythology  is  filled  everywhere  with  this  ethical  truth  of 
character.  The  unnumbered  poets,  through  the  spectrum 
of  whose  intelligence  and  feeling  this  expression  of  early 
life  has  come  to  us,  recognized  instinctively  the  simple  laws 
of  life,  carried  out  truthfully  the  great  typical  characters  of 
whom  they  sang.  Thus  Brunhild  and  Siegfried,  Pallas 
and  Apollo,  Thor  and  Odin,  Helen  and  Agamemnon,  have 
this  ethical  vitality,  and  the  stories  told  of  them  are  true 
with  the  higher  truth  of  poetry.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
artists  of  later  ages,  in  the  over-refinements  of  civilization, 
when  the  senses  are  artificially  stimulated  until  dulled  to 
natural  appeals,  when  the  realities  of  man's  life  are  covered 
over  with  a  garment  of  convention,  should  feel  the  need 
of  returning  to  the  breast  of  the  race-mother  to  gain  new 
vitality  through  saturating  themselves  with  the  simple 
expressions  of  primitive  life?  Sensitive  Tennyson  amid 
the  refinements  and  shams  of  English  aristocratic  culture, 
Wagner,  a  late-born  Siegfried,  yearning  back  from  the 
gloom  and  convention  of  a  mechanical  age  to  the  fresh 
laughter  and  wild  spirit  of  his  Valkyr  bride,  have  alike 
felt  this  thirst  for  primitive  reality,  and  have  given  us  their 
greatest  works  in  consequence. 

Thus  primitive  mythology  is  good  nourishing  food  for 
the  intellect,  imagination  and  emotions,  sound  in  ethical 
content,  beautiful  in  simple  artistic  form.  We  need  to  give 
enough  food  to  children;  and  one  of  the  worst  mistakes  of 
the  old  education  was  in  giving  such  starvation  diet  to  the 


840  MORAL   EDUCATION 

inner  life.  Moreover,  mythology  has  a  peculiar  charm 
and  value  for  children  because  it  springs  from  a  plane  of 
life  having  so  much  in  common  with  their  own.  The  fact 
that  the  general  parallel  in  development  between  the 
individual  and  the  race  has  been  so  overstated  and  mis- 
interpreted by  educational  extremists  should  not  blind  us 
to  the  fact  that  the  parallel  exists  and  is  of  great  educational 
importance.  As  the  embryo  of  a  higher  mammal  passes 
through  the  typical  stages  in  the  evolution  of  organic  life, 
so  the  individual  human  being  passes  through  the  great 
phases  in  the  unfolding  of  historic  humanity. 

There  are  severe  limitations  to  this  general  unity  of 
development.  The  child  of  civilized  parents  starts  well 
on  in  the  line  of  life;  many  chapters,  struggled  through  with 
bitter  pain  by  the  race,  are  quite  suppressed  in  his  growth- 
process;  phases  which  were  worked  out  only  through  ages 
of  slow  change  in  the  race  life  may  spring  suddenly  from 
potential  to  active  being  in  the  child,  under  the  influence  of 
a  single  stimulus,  because  of  the  inherited  capital  gathered 
up  in  him  as  instinct  and  capacity.  Moreover,  the  slow 
process  of  evolution  is  never  advance  in  a  straight  line,  but 
through  action  and  reaction  the  development  of  the  most 
widely  differentiated  forms,  growing  toward  higher  adapta- 
tion. The  different  civilizations  of  the  past  do  not  rise  one 
above  another  in  simple  chronological  order,  as  Hegel 
falsely  represented  them,^  but  grow  out  in  all  directions 
from  the  tree  of  life.  The  strength  of  one  is  often  the 
weakness  of  another,  while  through  them  all  is  slow 
progress  toward  the  higher.     Thus  while  each  of  these 

^  (Compare  Hegel's  preliminary  Classification  of  Historical  Data, 
Philosophy  of  History,  translated  by  J.  Sibree,  pp.  103-110.  The 
Colonial  Press,  New  York  (copyright),  1900. 


THE  ETHICAL  VALUE  OF  MYTHOLOGY  AND  FOLK-LORE  241 

historic  civilizations  has  its  own  lesson  to  teach  us,  it  is  a 
mistake  to  try  to  make  children  live  in  one  after  another 
of  them  in  chronological  succession.  To  do  that  would 
be  to  hang  them  like  monkeys  successively  to  different 
branches  of  the  tree  of  life,  instead  of  helping  them  as 
naturally  and  rapidly  as  possible  up  the  main  line  of  the 
trunk. 

Still,  while  general  and  not  specific,  the  parallel  between 
individual  and  race  development  holds;  and  thus  early 
childhood  and  primitive  life  have  much  in  common.  In 
both,  the  imaginative  and  emotional  life  is  powerful,  all 
forces  are  conceived  in  terms  of  personality,  the  interest 
in  the  world  is  generic  but  expressed  in  concrete  images, 
and  children  and  primitive  men  alike  stand  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  twofold  process  of  moral  evolution, — action 
being  largely  an  immediate  expression  of  desire,  and  sym- 
pathy extending  little  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  individual 
organism.  This  strong  community  of  character  between 
children  and  primitive  men  gives  mythology  its  now  well- 
recognized  powerful  appeal  to  the  child,  and  the  ethical 
truth  and  artistic  vitality  it  possesses  make  it  an  admirable 
supplementary  tool  for  moral  culture. 

It  is  objected,  however,  that  if  we  recognize,  as  we  must, 
an  historic  process  of  moral  evolution,  surely  we  do  not 
wish  to  give  to  our  children  material  springing  from  a  plane 
ethically  far  below  our  own.  This  is  the  one  strong  argu- 
ment that  can  be  urged  against  the  use  of  expressions  of 
primitive  life  in  education,  and  it  deserves  our  most  careful 
consideration.  It  is  true  there  are  elements  in  mythology 
which  are  morally  bad.  The  attitude  of  iEschylus  and 
Plato  toward  their  own  Greek  inheritance  may  well  serve 
to  guide  us.     It  is  best  not  to  emphasize  the  kgends  of  tlio 


242  MORAL   EDUCATION 

amours  of  Zeus,  though  young  children  are  not  hurt  by 
these  stories  because  they  do  not  understand  them.  Simi- 
larly, the  frequently  recurring  cruel  stepmother  of  German 
folk-lore  is  not  good  for  children,  because  untrue  to  average 
human  nature.  It  is  well  to  omit  stories  making  elements 
of  cruelty  and  brutality  too  prominent,  though  an  error  on 
that  side  is  better  than  effeminacy.  Thus  it  is  not  a  suffi- 
cient ethical  guarantee  of  our  material  that  it  comes  from 
primitive  times:  we  must  use  rigorous  and  intelligent 
selection,  omitting  those  legends  that  are  morally  harmful. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  we  are  to  use  mythology  at  all,  we 
should  have  for  it  something  of  the  same  reverence  primi- 
tive men  showed  it.  I  have  no  patience  with  the  facile 
retelling  of  these  great  expressions  of  race  life  by  all  sorts 
of  feeble-minded  people  to  suit  their  own  ethical  and  artistic 
whims.  This  is  one  of  the  many  expressions  of  that  prev- 
alent notion  that  any  one  who  can  talk  nonsense  glibly 
can  write  books  for  children.  To  write  books  for  children 
all  the  insight  and  skill  are  needed  which  go  to  the  creation 
of  literature  for  adults,  and  something  more — the  ability 
to  take  the  child's  point  of  view  and  speak  in  terms  of  his 
experience.  Even  when  the  *fixing-up'  of  the  legends 
to  suit  our  ethical  notions,  or  those  of  our  time,  is  done  by 
men  and  women  of  real  moral  insight  and  artistic  skill, 
the  effect  is  almost  always  to  emasculate  the  material  of 
the  very  human  vitality,  the  reality  of  race  experience,  that 
gives  it  worth  as  an  instrument  of  moral  education.^  I 
remember  the  pain  and  grief  the  late  Professor  Hermann 
Grimm  expressed  over  such  a  retelling  of  those  unmatched 

^  Professor  Adler's  admirable  book  on  The  Moral  Instruction  of 
Children  seems  to  me  open  to  criticism  in  regard  to  the  liberties  he 
has  taken  with  stories,  drawTi  from  folk-lore  and  especially  from  the 
Bible,  in  retelling  them  for  ethical  purposes. 


THE  ETHICAL  VALUE  OF  MYTHOLOGY  AND  FOLK-LORE    243 

German  legends  gathered  from  the  Hfe  of  the  people  by  his 
father  and  uncle,  the  Grimm  brothers.  The  remolding 
of  the  stories  had  been  done  by  certain  ethical  teachers, 
with  the  aim  of  making  the  material  more  helpful 
morally;  but  Professor  Grimm  said  that  all  the  life  had 
been  taken  out  of  the  legends  and  that  in  their  'ethical' 
shape  they  were  quite  spoiled.  He  was  right:  these  con- 
densed and  refined  expressions  of  generations  of  earnest 
living  are  far  too  precious  to  be  subject  to  the  whim  of 
every  educator  who  has  a  particular  ethical  lesson  to  incul- 
cate. If  we  use  primitive  material  let  us  use  it  reverently; 
if  certain  stories  seem  to  us  harmJul  let  us  omit  them  wholly, 
not  mutilate  or  emasculate  them  in  the  daring  attempt 
to  improve  them. 

I  question,  however,  whether  much  harm  can  be  done 
even  by  the  worst  elements  in  mythology,  since  the  positive 
ethical  worth  outweighs  the  occasional  flaws.  More- 
over, there  is  a  distinct  advantage  for  moral  education  in 
the  fact  that  primitive  mythology  springs  from  a  plane 
morally  earlier  than  that  reached  in  present  civilization. 
Moral  evolution  is  not  only  from  the  lower  to  the  higher, 
but  from  the  simple  to  the  complex;  and  children  are  pre- 
pared to  respond  to  the  simpler  ethical  standards  of 
mythology  before  they  can  even  safely  meet  the  complex 
riddles  that  fill  the  literature  interpreting  modern  life. 
It  is  not  a  question  here  of  relative  and  absolute  standards, 
or  of  lower  and  higher  ones,  but  of  teaching  moral  ele- 
ments before  their  intricate  combinations,  and  moral  prin- 
ciples earlier  than  the  complexities  of  their  applications. 
Read  Ibsen  and  Goethe,  and  the  great  problem  is  to  dis- 
tinguish the  good  from  the  evil.  Every  bad  situation  has 
some  redeeming  element,  while  every  good  action  seems 


244  MORAL    EDUCATION 

stained  by  some  marring  selfishness  in  the  motive.  In 
primitive  mythology  the  good  is  usually  all  on  one  side, 
and  the  bad  on  the  other,  the  good  conquering,  as  it  should, 
in  the  struggle  between  them.  The  tendency  in  life  is  for 
the  good  in  the  end  to  overcome  evil,  but  in  the  detail  of 
human  experience  that  tendency  is  often  thv/arted  or  un- 
fulfilled. It  is  necessary  for  our  moral  safety  that  we 
should  recognize  the  great  trend  of  law  before  we  are 
brought  face  to  face  with  exceptions  and  failures  in  its 
fulfillment.  Thus  children  should  study  primitive  myth- 
ology long  before  they  can  safely  read  Ibsen  and  Goethe. 

One  may  choose  a  myth  at  random  to  illustrate  this 
simplicity  of  ethical  problem  and  standard  in  the  expres- 
sions of  primitive  life.  Take,  for  instance,  such  a  story 
as  that  of  Perseus  and  Andromeda :  On  the  one  hand  is  a 
young  and  beautiful  maiden,  made  as  human  and  attract- 
ive as  possible.  Opposed  to  her  is  a  great,  misshapen 
monster  from  the  deep,  more  repulsive  than  an  ordinary 
beast,  and  thus  as  remote  from  our  human  sympathy  as 
possible.  The  innocent  maiden,  through  no  fault  of  her 
own,  is  to  be  destroyed  by  the  monster.  Between  the  two 
comes  in  Perseus,  representing  human  strength,  courage 
and  the  defense  of  innocence,  armed  with  the  Gorgon 
head  of  power.  He  destroys  the  monster  and  releases 
the  maiden.  So  the  story  ought  to  end  in  a  good  world; 
so  we  believe  it  must  end  in  the  ultimate  working-out  of 
life.  Meantime,  in  what  we  see  of  human  life,  how  often 
the  innocent  Andromedas  go  down  before  the  brute 
monsters  of  evil;  but  before  a  child  can  safely  recognize 
that  fact,  he  should  see  that  the  issue  ought  to  be  the 
other  way,  and  it  is  his  duty  to  make  it  so  if  possible. 

If  a  Greek  myth,  chosen  at  random,  expresses  this  simple 


THE  ETHICAL  VALUE  OF  MYTHOLOGY  AND  FOLK-LORE  245 

opposition  of  good  and  evil,  how  much  more  the  gloomier, 
more  earnest  mythology  of  the  northland.  There,  human 
life  was  a  perpetual  struggle  with  the  brute  forces  of 
nature.  Norse  mythology  is  simply  a  transfigured  inter- 
pretation of  that  struggle  with  its  ethical  implications. 
On  the  one  side  are  the  bright  gods,  Thor,  Odin,  Balder 
and  Freya,  representing  the  human  will  and  intelligence  in 
various  aspects;  on  the  other  are  the  Fenrir  Wolf,  the  Mid- 
gard  Serpent,  the  Jotuns  of  ice  and  snow  and  the  Demon 
of  destructive  fire.  This  northern  mythology  expresses, 
moreover,  a  further  lesson  that  children  need  to  learn  before 
they  can  safely  meet  the  complexities  of  modern  life.  It  is 
true,  good  sometimes  goes  down  before  evil;  but  it  is  pos- 
sible to  go  down  w^ith  colors  flying;  there  is  a  way  of  defeat 
that  is  the  greatest  of  victories.  It  is  this  lesson  to  which 
the  Norseman  continually  returns.  He  did  not  ask  vic- 
tory, but  only  to  die  fighting  heroically  on  the  field  of 
battle,  and  in  the  end  to  share  the  last  tragic  conflict  of  the 
gods  against  the  unleashed  brutality  of  the  universe. 

A  little  later  the  same  spirit  takes  form  in  our  own 
Anglo-Saxon  legend  of  Beowulf,  who  fought  with  Grendel 
under  the  sea  and  was  chosen  king  of  a  people  whom  he 
ruled  and  protected  for  fifty  winters.  In  his  old  age, 
a  new  danger  menaced  his  people:  a  monster  "worm"  or 
dragon,  guarding  a  hoard  of  treasures,  made  nightly 
onslauo:hts  and  devastated  the  land  with  fire.  So  Beo- 
wulf  went  out  to  fight  the  monster  as  a  king  should;  but 
his  thanes  failed  to  support  him,  and  fled  to  the  wood 
in  terror — all  but  Wiglaf,  of  Beowulf's  own  kin.  With 
his  one  faithful  comrade  Beowulf  fought  and  killed  the 
monster,  but  was  himself  wounded  unto  death.  And  to 
Wiglaf 


246 


MORAL   EDUCATION 


Gray  with  care: 

*  *         * 

*  Bid  the  renowned  in  battle 
After  the  bright  flames, 

It  shall  be  to  remind 
High-rising 
That  it  the  sea-farers 
Beowulf's  tomb-hill, 
Over  the  flood-mists 
He  took  from  his  neck 
The  valorous  war-chief, 
To  the  young  spear-warrior. 
The  ring  and  burnie — 
*Thou  art  the  last  remnant 
Of  the  Waegmundings; 
Of  my  kinsmen 
The  earls  in  their  strength: 
That  was  of  the  old  man 
Of  his  breast-thoughts, 
The  hot  hostile  waves: 
His  soul  seeking 


"  Beowulf  spoke, 

*  *         * 

*  *         * 

a  grave-hill  make 

at  the  cape  of  the  ocean; 

my  people — 

on  Krone's  point — 

afterward  may  call 

when  the  ships 

from  afar  drive.' 

the  golden  ring 

to  the  thane  he  gave  it, 

the  gold-colored  helm, 

bade  him  use  them  well: 

of  our  race, 

all  Wierd  has  swept  before, 

at  the  Creator's  will, 

I  after  them  shall  go.' 

the  last  word 

before  he  the  fire  sought, 

of  him  from  his  breast  went 

the  doom  of  the  sooth-fast."^ 


This  is  the  other  lesson :  to  go  down  like  a  hero  and  find 
victory  in  defeat.  I  have  never  read  Tennyson's  match- 
less Passing  of  King  Arthur  without  thinking  of  Beowulf 
and  realizing  how  deeply  this  lesson  is  in  the  moral  con- 
sciousness of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  The  two  poems  are 
utterly  different  in  artistic  form :  in  Beowulf  metaphors  are 
poured  out  in  a  wild  flood,  rugged  words  arouse  the  sensi- 

*  Translated  from  Beowulf,  edited  by  Harrison  and  Sharp,  lines 
2793-2821.     Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston,  1888. 


THE  ETHICAL  VALUE  OF  MYTHOLOGY  AND  FOLK-LORE  247 

bility  with  harsh  aUiteration;  in  Tennyson  the  images  are 
carried  to  thoiighful  completeness  and  every  syllable  yields 
its  due  melody  to  the  cadence  of  the  line.  Yet  differing 
thus  in  form,  how  at  one  the  two  poems  are  in  moral  con- 
tent. As  Beowulf  is  left  with  one  faithful  thane,  so  King 
Arthur  is  alone  in  the  end  with  Sir  Bedivere.  As  Beowulf 
goes,  not  knowing  the  issue,  confidently  to  meet  whatever 
"doom"  is  meted  out  to  the  loyal,  so  of  King  Arthur  is 
repeated  the  weird  line: 


(( 


From  the  great  deep  to  the  great  deep  he  goes!" 


Tennyson  may  have  been  consciously  influenced  by  the 
rude  poem  at  the  beginning  of  his  race's  history;  but 
whether  that  be  true  or  not,  the  lesson  of  moral  heroism  in 
disaster  is  deep  in  the  life  of  the  race,  making  modern 
England,  like  ancient  Rome,  most  to  be  feared  when  in 
utter  defeat. 

Thus  the  virile  expressions  of  race  life  carry  the  simple 
masculine  virtues  that  must  always  underlie  the  moral 
subtleties  of  civilization  if  life  is  to  remain  sound.  If  re- 
finement is  not  to  mean  degeneration,  it  must  be  a  strong, 
forceful  life  that  is  refined.  If  the  development  of  appre- 
ciation is  not  to  mean  the  loss  of  moral  fibre,  the  character 
must  be  firmly  based  in  those  simple  principles  whose 
application  will  prove  so  intricate  and  confusing.  Primi- 
tive mythology  may  be  therefore  a  peculiarly  helpful  influ- 
ence in  earlv  moral  education,  since  the  wise  use  of  it  will 
do  so  much  to  establish  those  basal  elements  of  character 
without  which  the  refinements  of  later  cultivation  would 
mean  disaster. 


XXII 

THE  VALUE  OF  LITERATURE  FOR  ETHICAL 
INSTRUCTION  AND  INSPIRATION 

History  records  the  actions  of  men;  art  expresses  their 
thoughts,  emotions  and  ideals.  Thus  art  reveals,  as  it 
were,  the  soul  of  history  that  has  woven  its  material  gar- 
ment of  facts  and  institutions.  Therefore  art  is  the  most 
ideal  of  all  expressions  of  human  life.  Less  influenced 
by  partisan  feeling  than  religion,  freer  from  conditions  of 
utility  than  ordinary  action,  more  directly  expressive  of  the 
spirit  than  institutions,  art  is  the  garment  to  which  we  must 
turn  if  we  would  read  the  soul  of  human  history. 

Each  of  the  fine  arts  has  its  own  peculiar  excellence  in 
revealing  the  life  and  spirit  of  man.  The  greatness  of 
literature  is  its  universality.  It  cannot  reveal  and  impress 
an  imaged  conception  so  forcibly  as  sculpture  and  painting, 
it  cannot  appeal  directly  to  the  emotions  with  the  sweep 
of  power  belonging  to  music,  but  it  unites  something  of 
the  functions  of  both  types  of  art,  and  goes  beyond  either 
in  the  range  and  many-sidedness  of  its  expression  and  inter- 
pretation of  life.  Literature  is,  moreover,  by  far  the  most 
accessible  of  the  fine  arts.  We  are  doing  much  by  me- 
chanical invention  to  bring  the  material  of  the  other  arts 
within  the  reach  of  students  everywhere,  yet  we  can  never 
succeed  in  rendering  them  accessible  as  is  literature.  To 
read  the  history  of  the  human  spirit  as  painting  and  sculpt- 


THE   ETHICAL   VALUE   OF   LITERATURE  249 

ure  reveal  it,  we  must  go  beyond  the  study  of  reproduc- 
tions of  works  of  art  and  have  opportunities  of  visiting  the 
great  museums  of  Europe.  Music  must  be  recreated 
every  time  it  is  enjoyed,  and  to  hear  it  adequately  given, 
one  must  have  opportunities  of  culture  open  to  very  few. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  great  literature  of  the  world  is 
accessible  to  everyone.  The  masters  speak  to  us  just  as 
they  spoke  to  their  contemporaries  centuries  ago.  No  one 
is  so  poor  that  he  cannot  have  access  to  a  few  great  books ; 
and  many  are  not  needed :  it  is  loving  and  repeated  contact 
with  those  loftiest  spirits  in  whom  humanity  is  so  won- 
drously  revealed,  that  gives  the  real  value  of  literature. 
Think  what  it  would  mean  if  we  could  spend  an  hour  each 
week  in  the  Sistine  Chapel  with  Michael  Angelo,  or  hear 
every  day  a  symphony  of  Beethoven  or  an  opera  of  Wagner. 
Yet  the  Wagners  and  Angelos  of  literature  lie  on  the  table 
of  our  own  room;  since  we  may  turn  to  them  any  time,  we 
rarely  enjoy  them  at  all,  and  people  even  go  through  the 
world  and  die  without  ever  climbing  the  mountain  of 
purification  with  Dante  or  sharing  the  world  vision  of 
Goethe. 

Thus  the  universality  and  accessibility  of  literature  as  a 
fine  art  give  it  a  unique  place  as  a  supplementary  instru- 
ment of  moral  education.  Moreover,  it  has  a  range  of 
ethical  values  not  equaled  by  any  other  fine  art.  There- 
fore I  shall  consider  the  art  of  literature  as  the  one  best 
expressing  the  value  of  the  fine  arts  for  purposes  of  ethical 
instruction  and  inspiration. 

1.  The  first  value  of  literature  in  molding  character 
comes  from  its  content  of  thought,  feeling  and  imagina- 
tion. Literature  is  filled  with  noble  thinking  on  the  per- 
manent ethical  problems  of  human  life,  expressed  not  for 


250  MORAL   EDUCATION 

the  trained  specialist,  but  for  the  ordinary  thinking  man 
and  woman.  Moreover,  thought  in  hterature  is  never 
expressed  alone,  but  always  transfused  with  emotion  and 
exalted  by  imagination.  The  result  is  an  appeal  not  to  a 
fraction  of  man,  the  understanding,  but  to  the  whole  person- 
ality, deepening  thought,  awakening  imagination,  refining 
feeling  and  touching  the  will  into  action.  The  resulting 
edii  cation  is  morally  of  the  highest  value  since  the  different 
aspects  of  the  spirit  are  cultivated  in  that  harmony  which 
gives  each  right  relation  to  the  whole  of  life. 

2.  All  literature,  even  the  most  objectively  dramatic,  is 
in  content  and  form  alike  an  expression  of  the  life  and  char- 
acter of  its  author,  and  often  the  best  thing  in  a  book  is  the 
man  who  wrote  it.  In  Sartor  Resartus,  better  than  its 
burlesque  humor,  its  heavy  German  philosophy,  even  than 
its  flights  of  inspired  poetry,  is  the  earnest  hater  of  shams 
and  preacher  of  the  gospel  of  work,  Carlyle  himself;  and 
to  feel  the  vigor  of  his  spirit  is  to  get  the  heart  out  of  Saiior 
Resartus.  Thus,  gradually,  through  loving  contact  with  a 
writer's  thought  the  student  grows  into  an  appreciation  of 
his  spirit,  until  Emerson  and  Lowell,  Dante  and  Goethe, 
become  more  real  than  the  imagined  figures  of  drama  or 
novel,  and  nearer  than  the  people  we  meet  in  the  street. 
It  is  impossible  to  estimate  too  highly  the  moral  value  of 
thus  making  the  great  masters  our  intimate  friends,  touch- 
ing their  thought  across  the  centuries  and  over  the  leagues 
of  space. 

3.  In  a  different  way  literature  is  quite  as  valuable  as 
history  in  presenting  life  in  relation  to  law.  History  has 
the  advantage  of  reality.  Our  interpretation  of  its  facts 
may  be  utterly  wrong,  nevertheless  the  facts  are  there,  with 
their  implicit  lesson,  waiting  for  a  true  reading.     Litera- 


THE   ETHICAL   VALUE   OF   LITERATURE  251 

ture,  on  the  other  hand,  is  Hfe  put  through  the  spectrum  of 
some  man's  spirit,  and  there  may  frequently  arise  a  sus- 
picion that  he  has  misinterpreted  his  material.  This 
questioning  in  itself,  however,  is  positively  helpful  in 
ethical  instruction.  The  student  is  driven  to  compare  his 
author's  presentation  of  life  with  what  he  knows  through 
experience  and  observation,  and  thus  tends  to  formulate 
his  own  ethical  interpretations.  Much  more  important 
than  this  is  the  advantage  literature  possesses  in  that  it  can 
present  the  tendencies  of  life  carried  to  completion,  the 
laws  fulfilled  in  application.  Herein  is  the  prophetic 
function  of  art:  it  shows  the  completed  circle  of  which 
experience  presents  a  fragmentary  arc.  The  moral  vision 
of  the  poet  perceives  the  curve  of  the  arc  and  his  imagina- 
tion completes  it  to  the  perfect  circle.  The  tendency  of 
every  fact  of  the  spirit  is  to  become  a  fact  of  the  external 
world;  but  as  Plato  taught,  matter  is  resistant  and  the 
forces  of  the  spirit  are  never  completely  carried  out  in  it. 
The  tendency  is  that  "murder  will  out,"  but  many  a  mur- 
derer dies  with  his  crime  undiscovered.  The  tendency 
of  a  beautiful  spirit  is  to  mold  its  body  into  a  beautiful  gar- 
ment, yet  the  features  of  Socrates  were  the  laughing-stock 
of  his  contemporaries.  Thus  it  is  to  art  that  we  must 
turn  to  find  the  laws  of  life  carried  full  circle,  the  deed  re- 
turning upon  the  doer.  This  is  one  phase  of  the  ideal 
element  present  in  all  true  art.  Art  never  merely  photo- 
graphs life,  but  interprets  it;  and  the  greatness  of  an  artist 
is  tested  more  by  his  ability  to  reveal  the  meaning  than  to 
imitate  the  form  of  life.  In  the  drama  there  must  be  five 
full  acts,  carrying  the  ethical  forces  assumed  in  the  early 
scenes  to  their  final  fulfillment  in  the  last;  in  life  the  cur- 
tain may  fall  at  any  point,  even  in  the  first  scene.     In  life, 


252  MORAL   EDUCATION 

not  all  mad  ambition  crushes  its  Macbeth,  not  all  un- 
founded jealousy  is  goaded  to  Othello's  black  doom,  nor 
is  a  balance  of  the  will  between  opposing  forces  sustained 
to  the  disaster  of  Hamlet;  but  in  the  tragic  drama  it  must 
be  so,  for  the  last  fatal  conclusion  is  in  germ  in  the  opening 
scenes  and  characters.  In  life  the  tangled  threads  are 
spun  but  a  little  way,  then  Atropos  cuts  them,  and  how 
they  may  be  woven  out  behind  the  impenetrable  veil  we 
cannot  see ;  but  the  artist  must  see :  it  is  the  harmoniously 
woven  garment,  with  its  gold  of  love  and  its  purple  of 
grief,  its  light  threads  of  joy  and  youth,  and  its  heavy 
black  strands  of  disaster,  all  fused  in  the  living  whole,  we 
demand  of  him.  Thus  with  never  a  word  of  moral  preach- 
ing, Shakespeare  is  one  of  the  profoundest  ethical  teachers 
in  all  the  world,  and  Dante,  for  purposes  of  ethical  instruc- 
tion, outweighs  all  the  great  philosophers. 

4.  It  is  evident  that  what  was  said  of  the  value  for  ethical 
instruction  of  'bad  examples'  in  history  applies  even 
more  forcibly  to  literature.  A  bad  man  may  conceal  his 
real  nature  and  dress  his  vices  in  an  attractive  garb,  at 
least  for  a  time;  art  unmasks  its  villain,  and  when  it  deals 
with  evil  makes  it  as  ugly  in  form  as  it  is  revolting  in  spirit. 
No  student  of  Othello  was  ever  led  to  imitate  lago,  and  the 
examples  of  Goneril  and  Regan  never  tempted  a  child  to 
ingratitude.  Indeed,  another  test  of  true  art  is  the  way 
it  mates  the  body  to  the  soul  in  portraying  moral  perver- 
sion. Literature  that  makes  vice  attractive  and  arouses  a 
sentimental  interest  in  it  is  not  true  art  but  a  low  pandering 
to  decadent  sensibility. 

5.  By  its  portrayal  of  noble  characters  literature  has  a 
power,  unequalled  by  other  studies,  to  waken  and  mold 
lofty  ideals  of  life.     An  abstract  statement  of  a  high  aim 


THE    ETHICAL   VALUE   OF   LITERATURE  253 

is  ineffective  compared  with  the  power  of  a  concretely 
imaged  ideal.  Since  a  primary  function  of  art  is  to  make 
its  material  live  with  vivifying  imagination  and  emotion, 
the  writer  of  histories  must  be  an  artist  in  the  highest 
sense  to  give  his  work  as  great  a  value  as  literature  pos- 
sesses in  inspiring  ideals.^  Review  in  thought  the  group 
of  Shakespeare's  noblest  heroines:  think  what  it  would 
mean  for  a  girl  to  dwell  with  such  companions.  If  then 
her  ideal  could  be  transfigured  with  the  light  that  shines 
in  the  face  of  Browning's  Pompilia  would  it  not  be  radiantly 
complete  ? 

6.  Literature  has  further  a  power  to  deepen  and  refine 
the  life  of  appreciation.  This  is  true  of  our  relation  to  the 
many-sided  and  ever-changing  beauty  of  the  nature  world. 
It  is  by  sharing  the  keener  vision  of  the  poet  that  our  re- 
sponse is  deepened  to  the  thousandfold  beauties  of  the 
world  that  is  about  us.  One  who  has  been  stirred  by 
Matthew  Arnold's  Self -Dependence  will  always  feel  more 
deeply  the  majesty  of  the  ''intense,  clear,  star-sown  vault 
of  heaven"  ^nd  the  restless  motion  of  ''the  lit  sea's 
unquiet  way."  One  who  has  listened  to  the  sounding 
music  of  Sappho's 

'*  Hesperus  all  things  thou  bringst,  which  the  early-born 
Dawn  afar  scattered, 
Thou  bringest  the  goat  and  the  sheep,  to  the  mother 
thou  bringest  her  child;" 

and  has  watched  with  Byron  the  evening  hour  "  Sink  o'er 
the  earth  so  beautiful  and  soft,"  must  ever  find  a  deeper 


^  See   the   inductive   studies   in  children's  ideals  by  Darrah  and 
Barnes,  referred  to  above  (p.  235). 


254  MORAL   EDUCATION 

meaning  in  that  hour  of  meditation  and  of  love.  As 
poetry  transfigures  the  earth  in  describing  it,  it  becomes 
a  medium  of  our  response  to  the  beauty  and  subhmity 
of  the  world. 

7.  In  all  natural  literature,  however,  nature  is  never  a 
direct  object  of  description,  but  a  language  for  the  expres- 
sion of  the  thought  and  emotion  of  human  life.  Thus 
more  important  than  the  wakening  to  the  beauty  of  nature 
is  the  function  literature  fulfills  of  unsealing  our  eyes  to 
the  dignity,  comedy,  tragedy,  romance  in  the  drama  of 
common  human  life.  All  the  mystery  of  Hamlet  is 
wrapped  up  in  the  least  of  us;  Dante's  Heaven  and  Purga- 
tory and  Hell  are  in  the  humblest  village  in  the  land.  It 
is  through  the  interpretation  of  life  in  literature  that  we 
come  to  appreciate  the  human  world  in  which  we  live. 

It  is  strange  how  we  still  fail  to  see  the  necessity  of  the 
right  cultivation  of  feeling  and  imagination.^  Our  failure 
to  follow  the  Golden  Rule  comes  less  from  lack  of  good  in- 
tention than  from  inability  to  put  ourselves  in  imagination 
into  the  place  of  others  and  appreciate  how  they  would 
feel  under  given  circumstances. 

Not  only  this  large  appreciation  of  character,  but  the 
saving  quality  of  ethical  good  taste,  which  helps  us  to  dis- 
tinguish the  morally  congruous  and  incongruous,  results 
from  this  cultivated  sensibility  and  imagination.  The 
people  without  that  indefinable  but  priceless  virtue  called 
*tact,'  the  'cranks'  who  cannot  see  things  in  relation 
but  are  dominated  by  a  single  idea,  the  fanatics  who  can- 

1  "D'une  maniere  generale,  on  peut  dire  qu'a  la  source  de  toute 
grande  vertu,  de  toute  action  morale  de  haute  portee,  comme  aussi 
au  fond  de  tout  grand  dereglement,  soit  durable  soit  accidentel,  on 
trouve  rentrainement  bon  ou  funeste  d'une  imagination  puissante." — 
Marion,  De  la  Solidarite  Morale,  p.  68. 


THE    ETHICAL   VALUE    OF   LITERATURE  255 

not  tolerate  the  unessential,  but  spend  their  lives  fighting 
it,  so  that  they  are  powerless  (or  powderless)  when  the  real 
conflict  comes,  the  people  who  cannot  laugh  at  themselves, 
but  take  their  whims  for  their  conscience — all  these  are 
melancholy  examples  of  the  absence  of  that  cultivation  of 
feeling  and  imagination  which  in  its  negative  aspect  gives 
the  saving  grace  of  humor,  and  in  its  positive  the  apprecia- 
tion of  moral  harmony.  One  is  tempted  to  say  that  it  is 
impossible  to  live  a  moral  life  without  a  sense  of  humor! 
Except  wide  human  experience,  I  know  no  channel 
through  which  ethical  good  taste,  the  sense  of  moral  pro- 
portion, can  be  so  well  cultivated  as  through  w^de  and 
appreciative  contact  with  all  phases  of  human  life  as 
these  are  portrayed  in  the  world's  greatest  literature. 

To  gain  this  education  in  appreciation  the  student  must 
not  stop  with  the  artistic  symbol,  but  must  return  from  it 
to  what  it  symbolizes.  It  is  possible  to  shed  so  many 
tears  over  the  imaginary  characters  of  novel  and  drama 
that  one's  eyes  are  dry  in  the  presence  of  the  miseries  one 
might  alleviate.  This  result  is  due  to  the  dangerous  form 
of  dissipation  which  is  present  when  the  emotions  are 
allowed  to  effervesce  with  no  expression  in  action.^  When 
the  circuit  between  feeling  and  action,  reception  and  ex- 

*  "Even  the  habit  of  excessive  indulgence  in  music,  for  those  who 
are  neither  performers  themselves  nor  musically  gifted  enough  to 
take  it  in  a  purely  intellectual  way,  has  probably  a  relaxing  effect 
upon  the  character.  One  becomes  filled  with  emotions  which 
habitually  pass  ^dthout  promptmg  to  any  deed,  and  so  the  inertly 
sentimental  condition  is  kept  up.  The  remedy  would  be,  neA'er  to 
suffer  one's  self  to  have  an  emotion  at  a  concert,  without  expressing 
it  afterward  in  some  active  way.  Let  the  expression  be  the  least 
thing  in  the  world — speaking  genially  to  one's  aunt,  or  giving  up 
one's  seat  in  a  horse-car,  if  nothing  more  heroic  offers — but  let  it  not 
fail  to  take  place." — William  James,  The  Principles  of  Psychology, 
vol.  I,  p.  126. 


256  MORAL   EDUCATION 

pression,  is  complete,  all  stirring  of  the  imagination  and 
emotions  to  an  appreciation  of  the  characters  of  literature 
is  a  means  of  responding  more  sensitively  to  the  human 
beings  of  the  real  world.  The  value  of  this  culture  for 
moral  living  can  hardly  be  exaggerated,  since  only  as  we 
possess  the  power  to  enter  appreciatively  into  another's 
spirit  can  we  estimate  his  life  justly  and  act  helpfully 
toward  him. 

8.  There  is  a  further  phase  of  this  education  in  apprecia- 
tion which  is  of  crowning  importance.  The  world  in  which 
we  live  is  apt  always  to  seem  commonplace.  The  mass  of 
submerging  details  surges  in  upon  us  day  by  day  with  no 
principle  of  selection.  Only  the  rarest  insight  can  dis- 
tinguish that  which  is  essential  from  the  crowd  of  meaning- 
less incidents  which  die  with  the  day  that  gave  them  birth. 
Literature  has  power  to  give  us  a  certain  spiritual  perspec- 
tive with  reference  to  daily  life  by  revealing  the  divine  in 
the  commonplace,  the  ideal  meaning  present  in  the  hum- 
blest situation.  If  it  rests  us  to  go  out  from  the  dull  cir- 
cumstances of  our  own  lives  into  the  imagined  characters 
of  the  drama  and  the  romantic  situations  of  the  novel,  we 
return  to  our  daily  routine  with  a  new  sense  of  the  infinite 
possibilities  of  life  gathered  up  in  our  own  humble  per- 
sonality and  circumstances.  After  all,  life  has  always  been 
commonplace  to  commonplace  people,  it  is  made  sublime 
only  by  living  sublimely.  Literature  helps  us  to  see  that 
every  cause  which  ever  challenged  the  support  of  men  de- 
mands our  service  today,  that  the  ideal  of  which  we 
dream  will  be  found,  if  at  all,  only  by  living  nobly  the 
seemingly  humble  duties  of  our  daily  existence. 

9.  Finally,  literature  shares  with  all  art  the  power  to 
calm  and  exalt  the  spirit,  thus  giving  that  balance  and 


THE  ETHICAL   VALUE   OF   LITERATURE  257 

serenity  so  indispensable  to  noble  living.  This  influence, 
indeed,  is  the  supreme  function  of  beauty  in  relation  to  the 
human  spirit.  If  it  be  wisdom  to  'see  life  steadily  and 
whole,'  virtue  means  living  life  steadily  and  whole:  not 
piecemeal,  in  fragmentary  disjointed  parts,  but  each  ele- 
ment lived  quietly  and  sanely  in  harmony  with  all  the  rest. 
Thus  the  art  which  develops  in  us  that  serene  wisdom  con- 
tributes in  the  m.ost  direct  way  to  noble  living. 


XXIII 

THE  PRACTICAL  USE  OF  HISTORY  AND  LIT- 
ERATURE FOR  ETHICAL  INSTRUCTION 

It  is  evident  that  the  subjects  of  study  most  available  in 
supporting  and  enlarging  the  work  of  ethical  instruction 
are  of  value  not  only  in  giving  knowledge,  but  often  much 
more  in  forming  ideals,  awakening  appreciation  and 
inspiring  action.  Thus  the  task  of  ethical  instruction  can- 
not be  separated  from  the  work  of  moral  inspiration. 
That  is  why  courses  carefully  graded  to  give  ethical 
knowledge  so  often  hamper  the  best  use  of  history  and  liter- 
ature in  influencing  character..  The  moral  value  of  these 
subjects  comes  less  through  a  series  of  formal  lessons  with  a 
distinctively  ethical  import  than  through  a  w^ide  and  gen- 
erous contact,  under  good  guidance,  with  the  material 
the  subjects  present. 

Moreover,  the  simplest  expression  of  life  may  appeal  to 
the  youngest  student  and  the  wisest  philosopher.  A 
grasshopper  should  interest  a  child  and  Darwin.  The 
lives  of  noble  men  and  women  are  helpful  in  every  stage 
of  the  student's  growth.  Literature  that  is  simple  and 
artistic  comes  home  to  us  with  fresh  meaning  at  every 
step  of  our  experience.  Indeed  one  of  the  best  tests  of 
a  masterpiece  is  its  ability  to  grow  with  our  growth,  re- 
vealing a  deeper  truth  as  we  bring  the  key  of  enlarged 
experience  to  unlock  its  trea,suies.  ' 


ETHICAL  COURSES  IN   HISTORY  AND  LITERATURE       259 

Thus  our  use  of  material  drawn  from  human  Hfe  must 
follow  the  hint  of  life  itself.  The  typical  experiences 
come  to  us  in  different  form  over  and  over  again,  with  new 
meaning  on  more  mature  planes  of  life.;.  Similarly  we 
need  to  return  again  and  again  to  the  material  expressing 
and  interpreting  humanity,  and  wide  and  frequent  contact 
with  the  best  of  it  is  far  more  helpful  in  molding  char- 
acter than  is  the  formal  study  of  any  narrow  series  of 
selections  chosen  for  a  specific  moral  import.  The  organ- 
ization of  the  material  must  come  more  in  the  mind  of 
the  student  than  in  the  curriculum. 

Moreover,  as  the  ethical  interest  is  central  in  human  life, 
so  it  is  central  in  every  expression  of  life.  Therefore,  to 
secure  the  ethical  value  of  history  and  literature  we  do  not 
need  to  study  them  in  any  unusual  way.  If  we  study  his- 
tory as  history,  and  "literature  as  literature,  their  moral 
contribution  will  be  fully  gained.  It  is  only  when  their 
meaning  is  unwisely  narrowed,  as  when  history  is  made 
a  record  of  wars  and  political  changes  merely,  literature  a 
text-bpok  for  philology  or  rhetoric,  that  we  lose  much  of 
their  ethical,  because  their  human,  value.  Thus  it  is  the 
wise  and  broad  use  of  history  and  literature  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  school  work  that  will  yield  the  main  value  of 
these  subjects  for  ethical  instruction.  Neither  here  do  we 
wish  ever  to  moralize — to  tack  morals  to  incidents  and 
characters — but  to  help  the  children  to  understand  events 
and  persons  in  relation  to  law.  Thus  the  rnoral  meaning 
will  be  the  human  centre  of  all  the  sound  work  in  history 
and  literature,  rather  than  a  separate  teaching  abstracted 
and  given  apart.  M.  Vessiot  (academic  inspector  of 
schools,  Marseilles,  France)  expressed  this  so  admirably 
in  discussing  the  Prench  program  of  ethical  instructioi^ 


260  MORAL   EDUCATION 

that  our  American  Commissioner  of  Education  in  1882, 
John  Eaton,  caused  the  statement  to  be  translated  and 
issued  as  a  special  bulletin  by  his  bureau.  M.  Vessiot 
says  (pp.  3  and  4) : 

"Moral  and  civil  instruction  ought  not  then  to  be 
confined  to  one  division  or  subdivision  of  the  scholastic 
programme,  restricted  to  one  class  or  to  a  prescribed  hour, 
pressed  in  the  narrow  mould  of  a  few  inert  formulas  or 
solemn  maxims;  it  ought  to  permeate  all  parts  of  the  work 
of  instruction,  blossoming  out  in  varied  developments  and 
reappearing  everyday  and  every  hour;  it  ought  to  be  the 
life,  the  soul,  of  the  school.  It  is  in  the  school  that  a  child 
should  draw  in  morality  and  patriotism  as  he  inspires  air, 
without  noticing  it;  for  to  teach  morality  successfully  there 
is  no  call  for  too  much  moralizing.  That  moral  lesson 
which  is  announced  risks  being  lost.  Moral  instruction 
should  be  combined  with  everything,  but  insensibly,  like 
those  nutritive  elements  which  the  scientist  finds  reappear- 
ing in  all  sorts  of  food,  but  which  are  concealed  under  the 
infinite  variety  of  color  and  form  in  which  nature  clothes 
animals  and  plants,  and  which  man  unwittingly  assimi- 
lates without  a  suspicion.  Thus  moral  instruction  will 
enter  into  the  various  work  of  the  class,  the  readings,  reci- 
tations, dictations,  the  stories  related  by  the  teacher,  the 
selections  drawn  from  the  poets  and  romancers,  the  familiar 
and  sprightly  conversations,  the  grave  reflections  on  his- 
tory, the  games,  the  promenades — being  everywhere 
present,  in  short,  without  making  its  presence  remarked." 

How  admirable  the  statement  is!  Yet  in  the  French 
program  for  ethical  instruction,  unfortunately,  M.  Vessiot's 
view  has  been  departed  from,  and  the 'French  text-books 
abstract  the  moral  element  overmuch  and  treat  it  apart.  ^ 


X 


ETHICAL  COURSES  IN  HISTORY   AND   LITERATURE       261 

Perhaps  this  suggests  a  practical  vahie  in  separate  courses 
for  ethical  instruction,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  do  not 
form  the  ideal  medium.  There  is  danger  in  the  present! 
condition  of  our  education  that  the  moral  element  willl 
often  be  ignored  entirely  in  the  teaching  of  history  and) 
literature.  Many  of  our  teachers  are  by  no  means  fitted' 
to  deal  with  these  great  expressions  of  human  life  and 
bring:  out  the  moral  heart  of  them.  I  recall  an  eminent 
university  professor  of  Romance  languages  telling  his  class 
that  there  was  no  ethical  meaning  in  Dante,  and  that  the 
value  of  the  Divine  Comedy  was  entirely  as  a  text  for 
philology.  This  is  an  extreme  case,  and  often  teachers 
in  the  grades  have  a  more  human  appreciation  of  their 
subjects  than  is  shown  sometimes  by  advanced  specialists. 
Nevertheless,  in  many  schools  the  teachers  are  quite 
unaware  of  the  opportunities  for  moral  culture  presented 
by  their  subjects;  and  history  is  narrowed  to  a  mere  record 
of  wars  and  political  changes,  while  literature  is  studied 
for  some  single  interest,  rhetorical  or  linguistic.  By  sepa- 
rate courses  for  ethical  instruction  we  should  avoid  this, 
and  be  sure  that  the  due  time  and  attention  would  be 
given  to  the  moral  meaning  of  the  two  subjects  we  are 
considering,  so  that  children  would  clearly  appreciate  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  such  separate  courses  would  almost 
inevitably  tend  to  carry  further  than  is  true  of  the  regular 
courses  in  history  and  literature,  the  vicious  practice  of  ^ 
using  selections;  for  it  would  be  natural  to  cull  from  the 
whole  field  of  these  subjects  the  incidents,  scraps  of  verse 
and  prose,  bits  of  narration,  which  would  give  concrete 
form  to  the  lessons  we  desired  to  teach.  Undoubtedly 
selections  have  their  place :  a  good  deed  is  worth  remem- 
bering apart  from  the. man  who  did  it,  and  the  beautiful 


262  MORAL   EDUCATION 

expression  of  a  lofty  thought  is  inspiring,  though  removed 
from  its  context;  but  to  depend  upon  such  fragments  as  the 
'  basis  of  our  ethical  instruction  would  be  to  miss  the  main 
moral  value  history  and  literature  should  have.  An  inci- 
dent in  the  life  of  a  man  can  be  understood  truly  only  in 
relation  to  his  entire  character;  an  event  in  the  history  of  a 
■people  is  to  be  interpreted  only  as  we  study  the  people  and 
their  whole  civilization.  :  Even  more  rigidly  does  the  same 
principle  apply  to  literature,  where  the  artistic  unity  of  a 
composition  gives  its  place  and  meaning  to  every  detail  of 
the  whole.  Nothing  is  more  vicious  than  to  try  to  teach 
literature  through  volumes  of  scraps.  The  broken  meats 
may  be  good  tasting,  but  they  lack  the  artistic  and  moral 
unity  that  makes  a  literary  masterpiece  so  wonderful  an 
expression  and  interpretation  of  human  life.  A  Better  one 
good  novel  than  a  dozen  best  scenes  from  as  many  sepa- 
rate stories;  better  one  sound  poem  than  an  anthology 
of  happy  lines;  better  the  life  of  one  great  man  than  a 
collection  of  ethical  incidents  from  the  biographies  of 
many  individuals.  This  principle  is  sadly  violated  in 
much  of  the  material  we  put  into  the  hands  of  our  children 
in  home  and  school,^  but  it  need  not  be  violated,  as  it  at 
least  probably  would  be  in  separate  courses  in  history  and 
literature  for  ethical  instruction. 

^  A  striking  example  of  the  violation  of  this  principle  is  found  in 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  Young  Folks'  Library,  edited  by 
Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  et  al.,  and  recently  published  in  twenty  vol- 
umes by  the  Hall  and  Locke  Co.,  Boston.  Some  of  the  most  eminent 
names  in  the  United  States  are  associated  with  the  compilation  of 
these  volumes,  the  books  contain  portions  of  the  noblest  literature 
ever  produced  for  children  and  young  people;  yet  such  gathering 
together  of  climaxes  and  especially  thrilling  bits  and  fragments  (as 
for  instance  in  vol.  XIII,  Sea  Stories)  is  thoroughly  vicious  if  made 
the  daily  bread  of  the  child's  reading.  It  is  like  eating  all  the  frosting 
from  cake  instead  of  a  good  nourishing  breakfast. 


ETHICAL  COURSES  IN  HISTORY   AND    LITERATURE       203 

There  would  be  a  further  disadvantage  in  such  courses, 
which  has  been  imphed  in  what  has  already  been  said: 
to  deal  with  history  and  literature  purely  for  ethical  in- 
struction would  mean  to  abstract  overmuch  the  moral 
interest  from  the  whole  of  human  life,  and  thus  to  get  it  out 
of  proportion  and  true  perspective.  As  it  would  be  un- 
fortunate to  wear  one's  heart  on  the  outside  of  the  body, 
so  it  is  a  pity  to  bring  the  moral  element  to  the  surface  un- 
naturally and  make  it  too  explicit.  Much  of  the  best  moral 
nurture  comes  unconsciously,  and  we  can  easily  go  too  far 
in  making  the  student  aware  of  the  ethical  implications  of 
what  he  is  studying  Moreover,  when  we  teach  the  great 
expressions  of  human  life  purely  with  reference  to  ethics, 
we  are  in  danger  of  falling  into  the  detached  moralizing 
which  we  have  found  to  be  so  great  a  bane  to  all  ethical 
instruction.  It  is  not  that  we  want  to  trick  children  into 
listening  to  ethical  instruction  when  they  imagine  it  to  be 
something  else ;  but  that  the  moral  element  should  be  kept 
in  vital  relation  to  all  others,  as  a  beating  heart,  not 
removed  and  dissected,  but  alive  within  the  organism, 
sending  its  life-blood  to  every  part. 

Thus  separate  courses  utilizing  history  and  literature  for 
the  purpose  of  ethical  instruction  bear  much  the  same  rela- 
tion to  the  regular  work  in  those  subjects  that  the  commu- 
nisms, in  which  groups  of  people  gather  apart  to  construct 
an  ideal  society,  sustain  to  the  great  human  world.  We 
need  the  altruistic  people  in  the  world  to  contribute 
their  leavening  to  its  coarse  lump;  meanwhile  we  may 
rejoice  at  every  such  experiment  even  though  it  fail, 
because  of  the  standard  it  sets  and  the  lesson  it  teaches. 
/  Similarly  the  chief  value  of  such  courses,  utilizing  history 
and  literature  for  ethical  instruction,  as  characterize  the 


264  MORAL    EDUCATION 

French  system  of  education/  or  as  are  so  wisely  conducted 
in  the  New  York  Ethical  Culture  Schools,  is  to  show  our 
teachers  the  moral  implications  of  the  subjects  they  teach 
and  help  them  to  utilize  the  full  moral  value  of  history  and 
literature  in  the  ordinary  course  of  school  work.  When  all 
our  teachers  are  able  to  do  this,  and  history  and  literature 
are  given  their  full  place  in  the  curriculum,  the  need  for 
such  separate  courses  will  perhaps  have  passed,  through 
the  learning  and  applying  of  the  lesson  they  exist  to  teach. 

Meantime,  the  millennium  is  not  near,  and  we  must  wel- 
come every  expedient  which  will  reinforce  the  work  of 
ethical  instruction.  Without  establishing  separate  courses 
for  such  instruction  in  history  and  literature,  it  may  be 
well  to  increase  the  time  given  to  direct  ethical  teaching 
as  outlined  in  Chapter  XIX,  and  to  use  material  drawn 
from  history  and  literature  frequently  for  texts  and  illustra- 
tions in  the  talks  with  the  children.  The  controlling 
principle  is  to  keep  all  our  ethical  teaching,  direct  and 
indirect,  soundly  human  and  in  sane  relation  to  the  whole 
of  life. 

There  are,  further,  certain  incidental  ways,  apart  from 
the  regular  work  of  the  school,  in  which  literature  may  be 
utilized  for  m.oral  ends.  The  opening  period  of  the  school 
is  usually  given,  very  wisely,  to  some  exercise  that  may  con- 
tribute a  helpful  thought  to  consecrate  the  day's  work. 
Whether  or  not  the  law  and  practice  of  the  community 
sanction  the  use  of  the  literature  of  the  Bible  for  this  pur- 
pose in  the  public  school,  for  private  and  public  schools 
alike  there  is  a  large  amount  of  other  ethical  literature 
which  may  be  used  to  advantage.     The  Little  Flowers  of 

^  Compare  J.  C.  Br  acq,  Moral  and  Religious  Instruction  in  France, 
EdiLcational  Review,  vol.  XXIII,  pp.  325-337. 


ETHICAL  COURSES  IN  HISTORY  AND   LITERATURE       265 

Saint  Francis  of  Assist,  The  Imitation  of  Christ  of  Thomas 
a  Kempis,  the  Meditations  of  Marcus  Aurehus,  portions 
of  Emerson,  Lowell,  Whittier,  Wordsworth,  are  exam- 
ples of  the  kind  of  literature,  directly  moral  in  import, 
selections  of  which  may  be  read  with  the  children  at  the 
opening  of  the  day  and  so  consecrate  it.  Days  for  public 
celebration  and  birthdays  of  world  heroes  furnish  a 
further  opportunity  for  the  use  of  literature,  biography  and 
history  for  ethical  purposes. 

The  main  use  of  history  and  literature  for  ethical  instruc- 
tion and  moral  inspiration,  however,  must  come  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  home  and  school  life.  I  must  point  in 
conclusion  to  the  general  principles  which  should  guide  our 
selection  of  material  for  children  of  different  ages. 

These  principles  are  well  known  and  I  have  already 
indicated  them : 

(1)  Here  as  everywhere  we  must  begin  with  the  child^s 
experience,  and  work  out  from  that  to  the  larger  world  it 
interprets.  (2)  The  concrete  must  precede  the  abstract; 
(3)  At  the  same  time  the  interest  in  the  generic  whole  pre- 
cedes interest  in  the  special  part.  (4)  The  imagination 
and  emotions  can  be  appealed  to  earlier  than  the  reflective 
reason,  and  synthetic  appreciation  can  be  awakened 
before  intellectual  analysis  should  be  stimulated. 

Following  these  guiding  principles  we  should  begin  in 
history  with  simple  actions  and  concrete  lives  as  near  as 
possible  to  the  child  world.  These  should  be  chosen  at 
first  very  widely  from  the  life  of  humanity,  without  refer- 
ence to  the  accepted  divisions  of  history.  Gradually  these 
characters  and  deeds  may  be  identified  with  the  movements 
of  humanity  they  interpret.  The  field  should  be  narrowed 
as  the  work  goes  on,  the  study  enriched  by  a  recognition 


266  MORAL   EDUCATION 

of  all  the  affinities  in  time,  race  and  civilization  of  the  lives 
studied.  In  the  high  school  period  the  student  will  be 
able  to  take  a  specific  phase  of  hisk)ry,  deal  with  the 
various  expressions  of  life  it  presents,  appreciate  the  char- 
acters in  all  their  historic  relations,  and  reflectively  discover 
the  laws  underlying  and  controlling  both  men  and  events.. 

Parallel  with  this  rough  outline  should  be  the  classifica- 
tion of  the  material  literature  presents.  We  begin  with 
literature  simple  in  form,  imaginative  and  emotional 
rather  than  intellectual,  general  in  interest  but  dealing  with 
concrete  life,  and  in  subject-matter  as  close  as  possible 
to  the  child  world.  It  is  interesting  to  see  that  there  are 
two  kinds  of  literature  that  fulfill  in  different  ways  these 
conditions  and  are  complementary  to  each  other.-  We 
have  seen  how  powerful  is  the  appeal  of  primitive  mythol- 
ogy to  young  children,  since  it  springs  from  the  plane  of 
life  upon  which  the  child  lives  and  fulfills  usually  all  of  the 
conditions  mentioned  above.  In  another  way  portions  of 
the  simplest  literature  arising  from  the  child's  own  time 
and  race  fulfill  the  same  conditions.  The  poems  of  Long- 
fellow, Lov/ell,  Bryant,  Field  and  Riley  that  touch  nature 
find  child  life  in  subject  and  are  simple  in  form  have  a 
powerful  appeal  to  young  children.  Primitive  mythology 
contains  the  great  simple  ethical  contrasts,  this  modern 
literature  gives  the  refinement  and  delicacy  resulting  from 
centuries  of  moral  evolution.  Where  the  one  embodies 
the  generic  race  life,  the  other  expresses  the  moral  reaction 
of  the  highly  developed  individual.  In  both,  the  remain- 
ing conditions  are  fulfilled,  and  the  simplification  of  form 
can  be  secured  for  the  youngest  children  by  oral  retelling. 

This  must  show  how  wrong  is  a  course  of  study  graded 
with  reference  merely  to  the  chronology  of  the  literature. 


ETHICAL   COURSES  IN  HISTORY   AND    LITERATURE       267 

Children  should  begin  at  both  ends  and  work  toward  the 
middle.  For  instance  in  English  literature,  Beowulf  and 
the  simpler  works  of  Wordsworth,  Scott,  Tennyson,  and 
especially  the  American  writers,  should  precede  Chaucer, 
Milton  and  Shakespeare. 

As  the  child  grows,  a  wider  range  of  material  becomes 
available,  more  attention  can  be  paid  to  the  relation  of  the 
artistic  expression  to  the  author  and  his  world.  A  little 
later,  the  child  may  study  a  number  of  w^orks  from  the  same 
writer,  then  those  expressing  an  epoch  and  race.  The  end 
here  as  in  the  case  of  history  is  the  exhaustive  reflective 
study  of  a  special  part  of  the  material  with  reference  to  all 
its  relations  and  the  laws  it  reveals. 

I  can  merely  point  to  these  large  principles  of  arranging 
our  material  for  indirect  ethical  instruction,  repeating  that 
much  of  it  should  be  used  over  and  over  again.  While  we 
must  beware  of  emasculating  great  expressions  of  human 
life  by  attempting  to  use  them  earlier  than  the  child's 
experience  and  state  of  development  would  warrant, 
nevertheless,  as  the  great  laws  of  life  are  implicit  in  the 
simplest  and  earliest  phases  of  experience,  so  we  can  teach 
them  repeatedly  on  different  planes  of  life,  deepening 
the  intellectual  consciousness  each  time.  Thus  we  may 
well  turn,  over  and  over  again,  to  the  great  expressions  of 
humanity  in  history  and  literature,  hoping  to  unlock  them 
more  deeply  each  time  with  the  ever  new  key  of  enlarged 
experience  and  more  mature  character. 


XXIV 

INSTRUCTION  IN  THE  INTIMATE  PROBLEMS 

OF  HUMAN  LIFE 

There  is  one  phase  of  the  problem  of  ethical  instruction 
on  wkich  I  have  not  touched,  but  which  is  the  most  diffi- 
cult of  all;  this  is  the  task  of  giving  children  knowledge 
concerning  the  most  intimate  phases  of  human  life — sex, 
marriage  and  parenthood.  This  problem  concerns  us 
throughout  the  child's  development,  though  it  centres  in 
the  period  of  transition  from  childhood  to  young  manhood 
and  womanhood;  and  because  it  is  so  difficult  and  stands 
somewhat  apart  from  the  general  problem  of  ethical 
instruction,  I  have  reserved  it  for  separate  discussion. 
Certainly  it  is  amazing  that  so  many  children  should  be 
allowed  to  grow  up  with  no  knowledge,  except  what  has 
been  vulgarly  acquired,  regarding  the  most  important 
ethical  questions  of  human  life,  those  upon  which  by  far  the 
majority  of  wrongly  directed  lives  are  shipwrecked.  It  is 
surely  shameful  that  the  child's  knowledge  of  the  most 
sacred  elements  of  human  life  should  come  to  him  from 
vulgar  companions  in  the  gutter. 

Why  is  it  that  with  so  much  insistence  as  there  is  today 
upon  the  need  of  some  systematic  instruction  in  these  prob- 
lems, parents  and  teachers  are  slow  to  undertake  it?  Of 
course,  the  obvious  reason  is  that  the  task  is  so  difficult 
we  naturally  shrink  from  it.     But  is  there  not  a  deeper 


INSTRLXTION   IN   INTIMATE   PROBLEMS  269 

reason?  Where  such  deep-seated,  instinctive  repug- 
nance exists  as  is  shown  toward  instructing  children  in 
these  intimate  problems  there  is  usually  some  sound 
justification  for  it.  Even  thoughtful  and  devoted  parents 
show  this  repugnance,  which  I  believe  is  born  of  the  veil 
of  reserve  that  rightly  clothes  the  deep  things  of  human 
life.  That  veil  is  not  lightly  to  be  lifted.  The  people  who 
do  draw  it  carelessly  are  in  danger  of  degrading  themselves 
and  making  their  children  morbid  and  precocious.  No  one 
can  treat  carelessly  a  fundamental  instinct  of  the  human 
being,  such  as  this  that  protects  the  deeps  of  life,  without 
grave  harm. 

Nevertheless,  w€  are  in  no  way  excusable  for  abdicating 
our  responsibilities  and  simply  drifting.  It  remains  the 
parent's  and  teacher's  shame  if  the  solution  of  the  problem 
is  left  to  vulgar  comrades  and  other  chance  influences. 
Moreover,  if  children  do  not  acquire  reverently  knowledge 
concerning  the  most  intimate  functions  and  relations  of 
their  lives,  they  are  not  only  thrown  open  to  the  influence 
of  evil-minded  companions,  but  are  in  danger  of  misunder- 
standins:  their  own  instincts  as  these  dawn  in  consciousness 
and  so  of  responding  to  them  in  ways  that  are  destructive. 
The  great  need,  therefore,  is  that  parents,  teachers  and  all 
concerned  in  the  moral  education  of  children  should  under- 
take the  task  of  giving  the  needed  information,  while  main- 
taining a  reverence  for  the  native  veil  of  modesty  that 
should  always  clothe  this  aspect  of  life. 

First  of  all,  it  is  necessary  to  cultivate  reverence  for 
every  natural  human  capacity,  if  we  are  to  bring  the  child 
to  a  sound  attitude  toward  sex  and  parenthood.  The 
notion  that  the  sex  life  is  in  itself  evil  and  that  marriage  is  a 
sanctianed    indulgence    of   human    weakness    has    done 


270  MORAL   EDUCATION 

infinite  harm.  Much  that  we  teach  by  behavior  and  im- 
pUcation  tends  to  inculcate  this  false  view,  whose  per- 
sistence in  our  civilization  is  the  source  of  great  suffering 
and  moral  degradation.  The  life  of  the  body  is  just  as 
sound  and  right  as  the  life  of  the  soul  when  the  one  is  the 
natural  garment  of  the  other.  It  is  only  when  some 
capacity  is  affirmed  out  of  true  relation  to  the  whole  of 
life  that  it  becomes  a  source  of  evil.  Thus  every  natural 
power  should  be  regarded  as  just  so  much  opportunity 
for  life  when  expressed  in  sane  relation  to  the  whole. 
Better  the  pagan  worship  of  creative  forces  than  a  morbid 
dividing  of  human  nature  into  two  parts  one  of  which  is 
considered  devil-born. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  sex  life,  rightly  lived,  is  sound 
in  meaning,  it  is  most  important  to  avoid  any  precocious 
development  of  it.  Rousseau^  held  that  it  was  advisable 
to  try  to  retard  the  growth  of  sex-consciousness  as  long  as 
possible;  and  if  that  view  be  extreme  and  due  probably  to 
Rousseau's  own  morbid  experience,  certainly  the  danger 
for  the  children  in  our  civilization  is  of  too  early  rather 
than  too  late  a  development  of  sex  life.  Nowhere  else  is 
it  so  necessary  that  a  long  period  of  quiet  preparation 
should  precede  the  period  of  action.  Thus  we  should 
strive  to  keep  the  minds  of  children  away  from  subjects 
which  do  not  yet  concern  their  normal  functions  and 
actions.  Morbidly  stimulating  literature  should  be  care- 
fully kept  away  from  them.  Children's  parties  that  un- 
healthily ape  adult  society,  jests  concerning  sex-sentiment, 
above  all,  opportunities  for  secret  talk  with  precocious  com- 
rades should  be  rigorously  avoided;  while  every  native 
interest  in  healthy    outdoor  life  and   vigorous  physical 

1  See  Emile,  translated  by  Payne,  pp.  196-197. 


INSTRUCTION    IN   INTIMATE    PROBLEMS  271 

action  should  be  sedulously  fostered.  I  need  hardly  add 
that  the  ruinous  stimulation  coming  from  unsanitary 
clothing,  vicious  secret  habits,  depraved  servants  and 
companions  must  be  guarded  against  as  the  very  plague 
morally. 

It  is  not  enough  that  this  protection  be  accomplished 
for  our  own  children :  we  must  rise  to  that  larger  fatherhood 
and  motherhood  that  seeks  thus  to  guard  all  children. 
The  crying  shame  to  us  all  in  the  crowded  tenements  of  our 
cities  is  the  lack  of  privacy  of  life  to  protect  the  inno- 
cence of  children.  And  we  cannot  escape  from  being 
'our  brother's  keeper.'  There  is  no  way  of  guaranteeing 
the  safety  of  our  children  while  we  carelessly  allow  the 
moral  plague  to  spread  over  child  life. 

Further,  to  avoid  precocious  development  we  must 
beware  of  mistakes  in  teaching  children.  Well-inten- 
tioned instruction  given  too  early  may  be  a  powerful  means 
of  fostering  morbid  curiosity.  Everyone  has  noticed 
the  new  shy  reserve  toward  each  other  that  boys  and  girls 
display  in  the  period  of  transition.  Children  who  had 
previously  played  together  with  innocent  familiarity  now 
become  aware  of  a  kind  of  spiritual  wall,  raised  between 
the  sexes,  which  cannot  easily  be  broken  down.  This 
withdrawal  and  sensitiveness  result  from  the  dawn  of 
instincts  and  functions  in  the  child's  own  life,  and  indicate 
a  new  power  to  take  a  reverent  attitude  toward  the  facts 
of  the  sex  life.  Before  the  individual's  own  awakening 
such  a  reverent  attitude  is  impossible.  It  is  always  dan- 
gerous to  know  the  facts  of  life  externally  without  appre- 
ciating their  spiritual  corollaries,  and  this  appreciation 
depends  far  more  upon  one's  own  life  and  growth  than 
upon  any  instruction  one  receives.     I  have  known  children 


272  MORAL   EDUCATION 

seven  years  old  who  had  been  taught  by  'progressive' 
parents  all  the  facts  concerning  the  physical  relations  of 
marriage.  It  would  have  been  utterly  absurd  to  say  that 
the  children  knew  what  marriage  meant.  They  had 
merely  an  external  knowledge  of  certain  facts  with  little 
if  any  appreciation  of  the  spiritual  counterparts  that  give 
those  facts  sacredness.  They  were  aware  of  a  means  of 
expression  with  no  conception  of  what  was  expressed. 
The  result  was  a  soiled  attitude  toward  the  whole  problem, 
with  morbid  curiosity  stimulated  instead  of  satisfied.  The 
parents  could  not  have  done  worse,  and  the  repugnance  of 
so  many  fathers  and  mothers  to  giving  their  children  any 
instruction  whatever  in  this  connection  is  due,  I  believe,  to 
their  instinctive  sense  of  this  possible  harm.  It  may  be 
laid  down  as  an  unvarying  pedagogical  principle  that  we 
should  never  know  anything  we  cannot  appreciate;  that  is, 
it  is  always  harmful  to  be  brought  into  contact  with  ex- 
pressions of  life  the  inner  sense  of  which  we  have  no  key 
to  unlock.  If  it  is  sorrow  whose  garment  we  see  with  no 
recognition  of  the  soul  that  wears  it,  the  result  in  us  may 
be  callous  contempt;  if  it  is  cynicism  and  despair  into 
contact  with  which  we  are  brought,  with  no  appreciation 
of  the  experience  from  which  this  reaction  springs,  the 
result  is  often  a  blighting  of  our  lives.  If  it  is  love  whose 
clothes  we  handle  with  no  sense  of  what  they  express,  the 
result  is  apt  to  be  the  vulgar  and  morbid  curiosity  that  is  so 
ruinous. 

Thus  a  child's  questions  are  not,  as  they  are  so  often 
taken  to  be,  sufficient  proof  that  he  is  ready  for  the  full 
answer.  When  not  due  to  morbid  stimulation,  they  do 
indicate  a  dawning  interest  which  should  be  gratified 
rather  than  suppressed;  but  many  times  it  is  wise  and 


INSTRUCTION   IN  INTIMATE  PROBLEMS  273 

necessary  to  put  the  child  off,  making  him  understand  that 
he  is  by  no  means  ready  yet  for  the  answer  to  his  question. 
This  can  be  done  without  deceiving  or  angering  the  child 
and  certainly  without  stimulating  a  morbid  curiosity. 

We  dare  not  wait  too  long  to  teach;  and  here  we  must 
consider  not  only  the  psychological  moment  ideally,  but 
the  we  J  in  which  this  is  modified  by  accidental  circum- 
stances of  the  child's  life.  There  is  always  danger  that 
delayed  instruction  may  be  anticipated  by  vulgar  com- 
panions, thus  multiplying  the  harm  that  would  come  from 
reverent  teaching  given  even  far  earlier  than  the  child's 
point  of  growth  would  warrant.  Indeed,  the  only  sure 
protection  against  evil-minded  comrades  is  for  the  child 
to  know  in  advance  reverently  what  they  would  teach 
vulgarly.  Thus  the  parent  must  keep  informed  not  only 
of  the  state  of  his  child's  inner  development,  but  as  far  as 
possible,  of  all  the  associations  that  may  influence  him.^ 

It  will  thus  be  seen  how  indispensable  it  is  to  get  and 
keep  the  child's  confidence.  Little  children  like  to  express 
themselves,  and  with  some  care  on  our  part  there  is  small 
difficulty  in  knowing  in  detail  what  goes  on  in  their  lives. 
In  the  period  of  transition  from  childhood  to  young  man- 
hood and  womanhood  these  confidences  become  much 
more  difficult  for  the  child.  He  tends  to  withdraw  into 
himself  and  a  new  sense  of  his  spiritual  isolation  from  the 
rest  of  the  world  comes  over  him.     At  the  same  time 

iSee  LuDWiG  Woltmann,  System  des  MoraUschen  Bewusstscins, 
pp.  383-387,  for  an  excellent  illustrative  dialogue  with  reference  to 
sex-teaching.  Compare  also  Earl  Barnes,  Books  and  Pamphlets 
Intended  to  Give  Sex-Infonnation,  Studies  in  Education,  vol.  I, 
pp.  301-308;  G.  Obici,  Les  Erreurs  de  I'Education  Sexuelle,  La 
Revue,  vol.  XLII,  pp.  381-404;  E.  Lyttleton,  Instruction  of  the 
Young  in  Sexual  Knowledge,  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  vol 
IX,  pp.  453-467. 


274  MORAL   EDUCATION 

dawns  a  new  hunger  for  union  with  other  lives.  As  self- 
expression  is  more  diflScult,  so  it  is  sweeter  and  more  pre- 
cious. If  confidences  cannot  be  babbled  with  the  ease  of 
the  little  child,  there  is  a  much  stronger  desire  and  need 
to  give  them,  and  they  rarely  cease  altogether  in  our  chil- 
dren without  some  fault  on  our  part.  The  ability  to  con- 
fide one's  inner  life  to  another  depends  largely  upon  the 
measure  of  appreciation  one  can  reasonably  expect  to  re- 
ceive. If  we  take  time  and  thought  to  make  sure  to  our 
children  that  we  appreciate  sympathetically  all  that  comes 
into  their  lives  and  minds,  they  will  normally  continue  to 
find  joy  and  peace  in  expressing  themselves  frankly  to  us, 
even  into  the  period  of  young  manhood  and  womanhood.^ 
Thus  the  parent's  problem  is  to  give  the  child  reverent 
knowledge  of  himself,  the  functions  of  his  organism,  and 
the  intimate  relations  of  human  life  as  fast  as  that  knowl- 
edge can  be  reverently  acquired.  There  is  no  way  of  saying 
in  advance  just  how  fast  that  can  be.  It  depends  upon  the 
character  and  spirit  of  the  individual  child,  the  nature  of 
his  inner  development,  and  the  circumstances  and  associa- 
tions of  his  life.    It  is  no  easy  task — this  of  the  parent — de- 

1  Compare  Locke's  sound  advice  with  reference  to  a  father's 
reception  of  his  son's  confidences : 

'  *  But  whatever  he  consults  you  about,  unless  it  lead  to  some  fatal 
and  irremediable  Mischief,  be  sure  you  ad\ase  only  as  a  Friend  of 
more  Experience;  but  with  your  Advice  mingle  nothing  of  Com- 
mand or  Authority,  nor  more  than  you  would  to  your  Equal  or  a 
Stranger.  That  would  be  to  drive  him  for  ever  from  any  farther 
demanding,  or  receiving  Advantage  from  your  Counsel.  You  must 
consider  that  he  is  a  young  Man,  and  has  Pleasures  and  Fancies 
which  you  are  pass'd.  You  must  not  expect  his  Inclination  should 
be  just  as  yours,  nor  that  at  twenty  he  should  have  the  same  thoughts 
you  have  at  fifty.  All  that  you  can  wish  is,  that  since  Youth  must 
have  some  Liberty,  some  Out-leaps,  they  might  be  with  the  Inge- 
nuity of  a  Son,  and  under  the  eye  of  a  Father,  and  then  no  very  great 
Harm  can  come  of  it." — Locke,  Some  Thoughts  concerning  Edu- 
cation, edited  by  Quick,  pp.  79-80. 


INSTRUCTION    IN   INTIMATE   PROBLEMS  275 

manding  love,  thought,  wisdom,  unceasing  watchfulness 
and  care ;  but  how  great  is  the  possible  result.  By  the  age 
of  three  or  four  years  the  child  can  be  taught  reverence  for 
his  own  body  and  care  in  cleanliness.  Some  children  of 
nine  or  ten  can  safely  be  taken  into  the  mother's  confi- 
dence with  reference  to  the  coming  of  a  younger  brother  or 
sister.  Daughters  should  invariably  be  taught  by  the 
mother  the  meaning  and  care  of  the  functions  of  woman- 
hood before  these  have  matured.  Almost  equally  great  is 
the  need  for  the  father  to  teach  young  boys  the  meaning 
of  their  dawning  manhood  as  a  protection  not  only  against 
evil  comrades  and  temptations  but  against  the  legion  of 
criminals  who  prey  upon  the  young  under  the  guise  of 
medical  advisers.^  Direct  instruction  in  the  question  of 
sex-relation  should,  if  possible  without  incurring  graver 
dangers,  be  postponed  until  the  epoch  of  the  child's  own 
physical  and  moral  awakening  in  the  period  of  transition. 
In  all  the  teaching  I  must  warn  against  the  bad  com- 
promise of  giving  the  child  a  book  he  may  go  off  to  read 
alone.  This  shirking  of  parental  responsibility  is  tempting; 
but  it  serves  to  weaken  the  bond  of  union  between  par- 
ent and  child,  which  is  strengthened  by  oral  teaching  wisely 
given,  increases  the  child's  secretive  tendencies  and  adds 
the  glamor  of  the  half-forbidden  to  the  knowledge  gained. 
The  instruction  of  the  school  may  supplement  most  help- 
fully what  is  taught  by  the  parent.  In  botany  and  zoology 
the  child  can  study,  in  the  simplest,  most  objective  way. 


1  Compare  E.  G.  Lancaster,  The  Psychology  and  Pedagogy  of 
Adolescence,  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  V,  pp.  124-125;  and  G. 
Stanley  Haia.,  Adolescence,  \o\.  I,  pp.  457-463,  for  sad  details  of  the 
extent  to  which  boys  and  young  men  are  victimized  and  injured 
by  medical  quacks.  Thfese  details  illustrate  impressively  the  need 
for  sound  instruction  in  questions  of  the  sex  life. 


276  MORAL    EDUCATION 

the  mystery  of  sex  and  the  birth  of  Kfe  from  hfe,  with  noth- 
ing of  the  danger  that  arises  v/hen  these  problems  are 
thought  of  in  relation  to  specific  human  beings.  Later, 
when  the  child's  life  awakens,  nature  becomes  a  book  of 
teaching  Y\^hich  the  individual  may  apply  to  human  life; 
yet  that  application  is  rarely  made  by  unspoiled  children 
earlier  than  is  helpful. 

In  high  school  and  college  it  becomes  possible  to  take 
up  the  problems  of  human  life  in  all  the  more  intimate 
personal  relations,  and  study  these  directly  as  subject- 
matter  of  ethics.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  teaching 
is  only  a  little  less  difficult  than  is  the  more  personal  in- 
struction required  of  the  parent.  It  demands  personal 
soundness  in  the  teacher,  reverence  for  human  life  and  a 
tactful  appreciation  of  young  people.  Much  of  the  best 
work  may  be  done  by  indirection.  For  instance,  the 
literature  of  personal  autobiography  furnishes  numerous 
texts  which  can  be  made  most  illuminating  in  the  study 
of  the  deepest  questions  of  personal  life.  Similar  material 
may.  be  selected  from  the  general  field  of  imaginative 
literature  which,  if  less  real  than  autobiography,  neverthe- 
less presents  human  life  in  the  same  concrete,  living  form. 

Quite  as  important  as  the  teaching  is  healthy  association 
with  persons  of  the  opposite  sex.  It  is  the  natural  min- 
gling of  boys  and  girls,  young  men  and  young  women,  in 
common  interests  and  sound  activities,  that  prevents  mor- 
bidness and  keeps  a  healthy  attitude  between  the  sexes. 
This  is  the  greatest  argument  for  coeducation  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end  of  the  school  course.  It  is  undoubt- 
edly true  that  certain  ends  of  comradeship  and  esprit  dc 
corps  are  conserved  by  segregating  a  group  of  one  sex  and 
similar  age.     These  and  other  reasons  may  be  so  strong 


INSTRUCTION    IN  INTIMATE  PROBLEMS  277 

in  certain  cases  as  to  make  coeducation  inadvisable. 
But  such  segregation  always  involves  a  great  sacrifice,  and 
in  the  main  it  is  the  natural  association  of  the  two  sexes 
in  common  interests  that  best  safeguards  sound  develop- 
ment.^ Particular  problems  arise,  such  as  the  frequent 
engagements  and  marriages  occurring  in  coeducational 
colleges.  Yet  even  these  are  an  advantage  rather  than 
otherwise.  Someone  has  wisely  pointed  out  that  a  mar- 
riage made  in  the  class-room  is  more  apt  to  be  permanent 
and  happy  than  one  made  in  the  ball-room.  Certainly 
nowhere  else  will  more  vulgarity  of  attitude  develop  than 
among  a  group  of  young  men  constantly  denied  all  associa- 
tion with  good  women,^  and  morbid  hysteria  breaks  out  in 
its  worst  form  among  boarding-school  girls  who  are  ex- 
cluded for  a  long  time  from  the  society  of  the  other  sex. 

Further  there  is  need  of  helpful  personal  influence  on 
the  part  of  all  who  are  associated  with  children  and  young 
people,  to  supplement  and  at  times  correct  the  work  of  the 

'  "There  is  no  country  in  tlie  world  in  which  the  relations  between 
the  sexes  are  so  simple,  natural,  free  and  healthy  as  in  the  United 
States,  and  this,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  is  largely  due  to  coeduca- 
tion. Nor  is  it  difficult  to  account  for  this  result.  In  the  class- 
room young  men  and  women  learn  to  know,  and,  knowing,  to  respect, 
each  other  in  a  way  and  to  a  degree  hardly  possible  elsewhere.  Each 
sex  behaves  more  humanly  because  the  other  is  present:  each  sees 
the  other  engaged  in  serious  work. — the  best  way  for  anybody  to  be 
seen." — Thomas  Davidson,  The  Ideal  Training  of  the  American  Girl, 
Forum,  June,  1898,  vol.  XXV,  p.  474. 

^ "  No  one  can  teach  boys  to  respect  women  but  women  themselves: 
if  a  lad  or  young  man  is  to  emerge  into  manhood  ^vdth  any  right  idea3 
on  the  subject  whatever,  it  must  be  because  women  themselves  have 
put  them  there," — Ennis  Richmond,  Through  Boyhood  to  Manhood, 
p.  119. 

"  I  have  had  a  long  and  intimate  experience  of  boys  of  all  ages,  and 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  no  boy  or  young  man  goes  cleanly 
through  his  school  and  college  career  unless  the  influence  of  some 
woman  or  girl  in  the  concrete,  or  womankind  in  the  abstract,  is 
strong  upon  him.  ' — Ibid.,  p.  178. 


278  MORAL   EDUCATION 

parent.  The  problem  of  instruction  in  the  most  intimate 
questions  of  human  life  belongs  peculiarly  to  the  parent; 
nevertheless  every  teacher,  physician,  minister,  should  feel 
that  he  ought  to  fulfill  in  some  measure  the  parental  rela- 
tion toward  every  child  who  comes  under  his  care.  We 
dare  never  place  merely  professional  limits  on  the  work 
we  do  for  children:  all  work  with  children  is  a  mission 
to  the  human  spirit,  and  must  be  so  regarded  if  it  is  to 
be  well  done.  The  teacher  and  minister  can  hold  up 
the  hands  of  the  parent,  helping  him  to  see  the  child's 
need  and  supplementing  his  work  by  the  right  word  to  the 
child  when  it  will  help  most.  Especially  is  it  possible  for 
the  physician,  whose  work  is  so  intimately  personal  and 
who  is  so  reverenced  because  of  his  science  and  skill,  to 
give  just  the  word  that  will  help  to  brave  self-control  in 
trying  circumstances.  Further,  all  these  who  stand  in  less 
intimate  relation  to  the  child  than  the  parent  must  take 
up  the  latter's  work  in  the  spirit  of  the  larger  parenthood 
and  fulfill  it  for  the  child  in  those  sad  cases  where  the  par- 
ents are  oblivious  or  careless  of  their  duty. 

Finally,  all  who  share  in  the  work  of  instruction  in  these 
most  intimate  problems  of  life — parents,  teachers,  minis- 
ters, physicians  alike — must  never  teach  what  is  false  in 
the  direction  either  of  prudery  or  license.  Whatever 
measure  of  instruction  we  decide  it  is  wise  to  give  children, 
at  any  stage  of  development,  must  be  the  truth  as  we  see 
it,  never  altered  for  reasons  of  expediency.  Only  thus 
can  we  hope  to  develop  in  the  child  the  reverent,  earnest 
attitude  toward  the  most  important  questions  of  human 
life  and  to  hold  him  to  the  right,  when  the  trying  chapters 
of  his  life  open,  by  the  power  of  his  respect  for  us  and  the 
truth  we  have  sought  to  teach  him. 


XXV 

THE   RELATION   OF   MORAL  TO   RELIGIOUS 

EDUCATION 

It  is  outside  the  scope  of  this  work  to  attempt  a  study 
of  the  problem  of  religious  education.  Nevertheless,  the 
influence  of  religion  on  good  conduct  is  so  important  that 
it  is  necessary  to  show  the  general  relation  of  our  problem 
of  moral  education  to  that  of  religious  culture. 

There  is  just  now  a  wide  awakening  of  interest  in  relig- 
ious education.  The  churches  have  been  impressed 
with  their  loss  of  hold  on  the  great  masses  of  the  people 
and  with  the  failure  of  their  older  methods  of  work  to  meet 
the  needs  of  modern  industrial  and  city  life.  Earnest 
religious  people  of  all  sorts  of  creeds  are  realizing  more  and 
more  clearly  that  conversion  is  not  enough,  but  must  be 
supported  by  education,  that  the  religious  life  should  in- 
volve deliberate  cultivation  as  well  as  sudden  transforma- 
tion. These  new  ideas  came  to  clear  consciousness  in  the 
addresses  given  at  the  Chicago  convention  called  in  1903 
to  consider  the  problem  of  religious  education.  The  one 
point  in  common  to  all  the  addresses  was  the  recognition 
of  the  need  for  new  and  stronger  efforts  in  the  cause  the 
speakers  came  to  discuss. 

This  new  attitude  is  due  largely  to  the  influence  of  mod- 
ern psychology.  Inductive  studies  into  mental  develop- 
ment, especially  in  the  period  of  transition  from  childhood 


280  MORAL   EDUCATION 

to  youth,  have  shown  how  intimately  changes  in  the  rehg- 
ious  Ufe  of  the  individual  are  connected  with  other  normal 
phases  of  growth,  and  how  all  alike  are  subject  to  con- 
sciously planned  influences.^  In  harmony  with  these  more 
recent  conceptions  new  ranges  of  practical  work  with  chil- 
dren and  young  people  have  developed  which,  while  still 
largely  in  the  stage  of  using  devices,  give  fresh  vitality  to 
religious  influences  and  are  full  of  promise  for  even 
greater  usefulness  in  the  future. 

With  all  this  new  ferment  there  is  still,  however,  con- 
siderable misconception  as  to  what  the  task  of  religious 
education  really  means,  and  problems  of  quite  different 
import  are  confused  with  each  other.  More  than  one  of 
the  speakers  at  the  Chicago  convention  assumed  the  whole 
problem  of  religious  education  to  mxcan  teaching  the  Bible 
to  children,  and  one  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  there  cannot 
be  more  direct  relio^ious  teachino^  in  the  schools  unless  the 
laws  regarding  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools 
are  changed!^     It  becomes  necessary  to  define  religion 

^  Compare:  G.  Stanley  Hall,  Adolescence,  vol.  II,  chapter  XIV; 
A.  H.  Daniels,  The  New  Life;  E.  G.  Lancaster,  The  Psychologij 
and  Pedagogy  of  Adolescence;  A.  C.  Ellis,  Sunday  School  Work  and 
Bible  Study  in  the  Light  of  Modern  Pedagogy;  E.  D.  Starbuck,  A 
Study  of  Conversion,  and  The  Psychology  of  Religion. 

2  "  The  law  ranges,  as  you  have  observed,  between  absolute  prohibi- 
tion of  Bible  reading;  permitting  it  when  no  one  objects,  but  not 
othermse;  leaving  it  to  the  option  of  the  local  authorities,  either 
trustees  or  teacher;  and  requiring  it,  either  leaving  the  amount  and 
method  to  the  option  of  the  teacher  or  prescribing  a  very  limited 
amount  of  reading  daily. 

"At  the  best  this  is  not  much — not  much  of  the  Bible  and  almost 
nothing  in  the  way  of  effective  teaching.  But  it  is  well  to  under- 
stand that  there  are  laws  governing  this  matter,  and  that  we  are  not 
dealing  with  a  question  that  can  be  settled  off-hand  in  a  religious 
gathering  or  a  teachers'  convention.  If  there  is  not  more  direct 
religious  teaching  in  our  schools,  at  least  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the 
teachers.     Nor  can  there  be  more  than  there  is  now,  unless  the  laws 


THE  RELATION  OF  MORAL  TO  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  281 

over  again,  and  separate  carefully  the  different  problems 
involved  in  cultivating  a  religious  spirit  and  attitude. 

There  are  really  two  different  problems  loosely  con- 
fused under  the  general  head  of  religious  education. 
There  is  first  the  problem  of  initiating  the  child  into  the 
history  of  religion,  especially  of  the  religion  that  is  dom- 
inant in  the  society  to  which  he  belongs.  Second,  there 
is  the  problem  of  inspiring  him  with  a  reverently  religious 
attitude  in  his  own  life.  It  is  evident  that  these  tasks 
overlap,  the  first  contributing  to  the  second;  but  their 
significance  is  so  different  that  they  should  not  be  con- 
fused. 

The  first  task  is  one  part  of  the  general  work  of  the  his- 
tory of  culture.  To  appreciate  the  literature,  sculpture, 
painting,  action  and,  indeed,  all  expressions  of  life  during 
these  Christian  centuries,  a  knowledge  of  the  basal  sources 
of  the  Christian  religion  is  essential.^  Consider,  for  in- 
stance, how  necessary  a  knowledge  of  the  Bible  is  to  the 
appreciation  of  half  the  paintings  in  any  European  gallery. 
As  the  Bible  is  the  great  text-book  of  Christianity,  so  it 
is  a  source  from  which  much  of  our  civilization  can  be 
explained.  The  study  of  the  history  and  sources  of  the 
religion  prevalent  in  the  society  about  the  individual 
should  have,  therefore,  an  important  place  in  the  work 


are  changed.  Referring  to  the  reasons  I  have  suggested  for  the 
enactment  of  these  laws,  and  w-ith  a  knowledge  of  the  lurknig  danger 
of  sectarian  strife,  we  cannot  escape  the  con^dction  that  we  have 
here  a  most  difficult  and  delicate  problem."— Charles  H.  Thurber, 
Religious  and  Moral  Education  through  Public  and  Private  Schools 
in  Proceedings  of  the  First  Convention  of  the  Religious  Education  Asso- 
ciation, p.  133. 

1  Ob\'iously  the  same  argument  applies  to  the  old  Bible  in  relation 
to  subsequent  Jewish  civiHzation.  or  in  fact  to  the  sources  of  any 
religion  prevailing  in  the  societj^  about  the  child. 


282  MORAL   EDUCATION 

we  do  in  the  history  of  culture.^  Moreover,  such  study, 
no  matter  how  coolly  and  scientifically  undertaken,  will 
have  some  reaction,  beneficial  in  character,  on  the  stu- 
dent's own  religious  attitude.  As  we  are  initiated  into 
the  spirit  of  philosophy  by  studying  the  history  of  philos- 
ophy, so  all  earnest  study  of  the  history  of  religions  tends 
to  develop  in  us  a  reverent  religious  spirit. 

This  reaction  on  the  student's  religious  attitude  which 
results  from  his  study^of  the  history  and  sources  of  religion 
is,  however,  but  a  fraction  of  the  task  of  religious  education. 
Religion  is  more  than  all  historic  religions,  and  thus  should 
not  be  identified  with  any  one  of  them.  -  In  this  larger 
sense  one's  religion  is  one's  whole  attitude  in  thought  and 
feeling  toward  the  sum  of  things.  As  Carlyle  has  it, 
religion  is  whatever  "  a  man  does  practically  believe,"  and 
we  must  add,  feel,  "concerning  his  vital  relations  to  this 
mysterious  universe."^  In  this  sense  religion  is  eminently 
personal,  increasingly  so  as  the  mind  grows  in  breadth  and 
freedom;  and  every  earnest  man  has  a  religion  even  though 
he  have  no  affiliations  with  existing  religious  organiza- 
tions. 

The  first  element  in  the  work  of  religious  education, 

^  "Christian  theology  is  ten-fold  more  important  to  us  than  the 
pagan,  from  a  purely  secular  point  of  view,  *How  can  a  child  read 
Whittier,  or  how  can  he  understand  the  period  of  Henry  VIII  if  he  is 
ignorant  of  theology?  How  can  we  teach  a  child  anything  of  the 
great  painters  if  he  lacks  the  knowledge  which  alone  can  give  signifi- 
cance to  their  creations?  No  one  can  ever  realize  ho w  important  this 
is  until  he  tries  to  teach  our  literature,  art  and  history  to  Japanese 
or  Chinese  students.  .  Of  course,  they  lack  other  keys ;  but  theology 
is  one  of  the  most  important." — Earl  Barnes,  Children's  Attitude 
Toward  Theology,  in  Studies  in  Education,  vol.  II,  p.  286.  Mr. 
Barnes's  study,  while  taking  unusual  ground  with  reference  to  the 
theological  instruction  of  children,  is  valuable  in  connection  with  the 
whole  problem  of  religious  education. 

^  Heroes  and  Hero-Worship,  lecture  I. 


THE  RELATION  OF  MORAL  TO  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  2,S3 

interpreted  in  this  larger  way,  is  to  waken  wonder  in  the 
presence  of  the  immensity  and  mystery  of  the  universe, 
awe  and  reverence  in  the  presence  of  its  majesty,  order 
and  harmony.  Such  wonder  and  reverence  characterize 
the  distinctively  religious  attitude  as  contrasted  with  the 
smart  cynicism  which  imagines  it  has  solved  the  universe 
and  superficially  ignores  the  deep  below  deep  beyond  our 
last  sounding.  This  essentially  religious  attitude  is  neces- 
sary to  the  noblest  living.  Life  needs  to  be  touched  with 
the  glamor  of  wonder  and  deepened  with  the  atmosphere 
of  reverence.  Men  live  less  by  knowledge  than  by  an 
appreciation  of  what  has  not  yet  been  gathered  up  in  the 
categories  of  science.  The  great  experiences  of  human 
life  break  in  through  the  closed  circle  of  our  knowledge: 
We  can  never  anticipate  them  in  theory.  Life  precedes 
philosophy :  in  a  very  true  sense  men  are  better  than  they 
know,  living  in  experience  much  that  they  have  not  yet 
formulated  in  terms  of  the  understanding.  Thus  '^mere 
morality,''  were  such  conceivable,  would  mean  cold  con- 
formity to  intellectually  recognized  principles  of  conduct, 
with  no  touch  of  enthusiasm,  no  sense  of  the  infinite  reach 
of  life,  no  atmosphere  of  wonder  and  reverence.  Such 
morality  is  obviously  inadequate  to  the  ends  of  human  life, 
and  moral  education  must  include  the  task  of  cultivating 
this  higher  religious  attitude.^ 

Beyond  wonder  and  reverence,  education  should  foster 
a  further  element  in  the  higher  religious  attitude,  namely. 


^  "Noble  types  of  character  may  rest  on  only  the  native  instincts 
of  the  soul  or  even  on  broadly  interpreted  utilitarian  considerations. 
But  if  morality  without  religion  were  only  a  bloodless  corpse  or  a 
plank  in  a  shipwTeck,  there  is  now  need  enough  for  teachers  to  study 
its  form,  drift,  and  uses  by  itself  alone."— G.  Stanley  Hall,  Moral 
Education  and  Will-Training,  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  II,  p.  77. 


284  MORAL   EDUCATION 

the  passion  for  human  service.  While  conduct  that  is 
helpful  to  humanity  is  a  noble  element  of  morality,  the  love 
that  inspires  such  conduct  is  part  of  religion.  In  the  same 
sense  there  is  a  religion  of  truth,  a  religion  of  art,  of  work 
and  of  personal  love.  Thus  the  higher  religious  spirit 
should  pervade  all  aspects  of  our  conduct:  life  itself 
should  become  a  religion.^ 

This  higher  religious  spirit  will  be  awakened  not  by 
talking  about  it,  but  through  the  books  and  people  which 
express  this  spirit  and  into  contact  with  w^hich  the  student 
is  brought.  The  religious  impulse  will  come,  therefore, 
f-not  as  a  separate  element  of  instruction,  but  through  the 
whole  course  of  moral  education,  v/here  this  is  reverently 
carried  out.  As  literature  and  history  are  the  great 
expressions  of  human  life  available  for  education,  they  will 
furnish  the  important  channel  for  communicating  the  en- 
thusiasm for  humanity,  while  natural  science  will  equal 
them  in  arousing  wonder  and  awe  in  the  presence  of  the 
majesty  and  order  of  the  universe. 

It  is,  above  all,  through  persons  that  the  higher  religious 
attitude  is  to  be  awakened.  That  is  why  all  who  have 
to  do  with  education  should  be  earnestly  religious  in  the 
sense  in  which  I  am  using  the  word.  There  is  no  limit 
to  the  extent  to  which  wonder,  reverence  and  love  may  be 
communicated  from  one  spirit  to  another,  while  a  *  smart,' 
superficially  cynical  attitude  in  the  teacher  will  spoil  whole 
groups  of  students  by  cutting  off  the  roots  of  their  love  and 
enthusiasm  before  the  latter  have  had  time  to  flower  out 
into  practice. 

'  See  the  chapter  on  The  Religion  of  Humanity,  in  The  New 
Humanism,  by  Edward  Howard  Griggs,  pp.  225-239  (B.  W. 
Huebsch,  1904)  for  a  fuller  development  of  this  thought. 


THE  RELATION  OF  MORAL  TO  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  285 

Beyond  the  fostering  of  this  rehgious  attitude,  there  is 
the  further  problem  of  the  relation  of  our  teaching  to 
the  great  theses  of  spiritual  faith.  The  four  fundamental 
problems  of  philosophy — God,  Immortality,  Freedom  and 
Duty — are  at  the  same  time  the  questions  personal  relig- 
ious faith  must  answer  in  order  to  lay  a  foundation  for 
action.  The  first  is  the  problem  of  the  ultimate  source  of 
the  universe  and  so  of  human  life.  The  second  is  the 
problem  of  the  ultimate  end  of  life.  The  third  is  the 
problem  of  the  ultimate  nature  of  the  process  of  life.  The 
fourth  is  the  problem  of  the  ultimate  law  of  life.  These 
are,  indeed,  the  four  aspects  of  our  relation  to  the  uni- 
verse, and  what  answer  we  give  them  is  not  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  the  practical  life.  On  the  contrary,  every 
slightest  action  is  a  focusing  point  in  which  the  answers 
we  consciously  or  unconsciously  give  to  these  fundamental 
enigmas  find  expression.  Thus  the  character  of  the 
instruction  we  give  children  in  regard  to  these  four  ulti- 
mate problems  will  have  deep  importance  for  the  moral 
Ufe. 

The  question  as  to  what  instruction  we  should  give 
children  in  this  connection  must  be  answered  differently 
in  public  and  private  schools  and  in  the  home.  Let  me 
consider  first  the  problem  in  the  public  school.  In  certain 
foreign  countries  the  plan  has  been  adopted  of  allowing 
clergymen  of  different  faiths  to  teach,  for  a  period  each  day, 
the  groups  of  children  belonging  to  their  confessions. 
Other  countries  1  have  tried  the  differentiation  of  the  schools 
by  residence  districts:  making  one  Catholic,  another  Prot- 


*  See  the  chapter  on  Religious  Instruction  in  England,  France, 
Germany,  and  America,  by  C.  De  Garmo,  in  Principles  of  Religious 
Education,  by  N.  M.  Butler,  et  ai,  pp.  49-75, 


286  MORAL   EDUCATION 

estant,  according  to  the  religious  affiliations  of  the  ma- 
jority of  people  living  in  the  neighborhood.  Fortunately, 
these  compromises  have  not  tempted  us  in  America. 
The  complete  separation  of  church  and  state  has  resulted 
in  a  general  sentiment  upholding  the  complete  seculariza- 
tion of  the  public  schools.  Evils  have  undoubtedly  fol- 
lowed from  this, — some  quite  unnecessary.  For  instance, 
it  is  a  pity  the  Bible  has  so  often  been  excluded  as  the  text- 
book of  certain  religions,  without  recognizing  that  it  may 
be  readmitted  as  a  body  of  noble  literature  entirely  apart 
from  any  theological  explication.  Yet  in  the  main  the 
result  has  been  far  more  satisfactory  than  in  the  case  of 
the  various  compromises  attempted  in  other  lands.  Thus 
in  our  American  system  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  general 
principle  that  instructors  in  the  public  schools  should 
never  teach  as  scientific  truth  any  religious  dogma  that  is 
rejected  or  questioned  by  an  intelligent  portion  of  the  com- 
munity, if  only  one  citizen.  This  applies  to  any  doctrine, 
no  matter  how  reverently  cherished  it  may  be  by  the 
teacher.  The  divinity  of  Christ,  the  existence  of  a  per- 
sonal God,  or  the  thesis  of  materialism :  whatever  the  doc- 
trine is,  the  teacher  must  never  confuse  belief  and  objective 
knowledge,  and  should  never  deliberately  inculcate  beliefs 
which  reverent  parents  hold  to  be  false. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  teacher  should  be  accorded  some 
freedom  in  the  expression  of  personal  beliefs  if  these  are 
not  unnecessarily  obtruded  and  are  kept  strictly  within  the 
field  of  belief  and  not  confused  with  science.  The  influ- 
ence of  a  teacher  over  his  pupils  is  so  great  that  there 
should  be  wise  reserve  in  thus  expressing  personal  faith, 
yet  children  cannot  learn  too  early  that  personal  faith  is 
the  basis  of  action,  and  that  each  thoughtful  individual 


THE  RELATION  OF  MORAL  TO  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  287 

has  at  bottom  his  own  reaction  upon  the  whole  of  Hfe, 
which  may  or  may  not  agree  in  large  features  with  the 
faith  of  others. 

Thus  a  teacher  can  always  keep  clear  the  distinction 
between  what  some  men  believe  and  what  all  know  to  be 
true,  and  with  careful  tact  can  quite  undogmatically  incul- 
cate a  reverence  for  all  earnest  faith,  no  matter  how  remote 
its  theses  may  be  from  the  student's  or  teacher's  own  atti- 
tude. Moreover,  this  just  reserve  in  reference  to  the  teach- 
ing of  any  dogmatic  theology  need  in  no  way  interfere  with 
that  deeper  religious  impress — the  communication  from 
teacher  to  student  of  the  spirit  of  wonder  and  reverence 
in  relation  to  the  mystery,  order  and  harmony  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  of  enthusiasm  for  human  service. 

Private  school  teachers  naturally  have  much  more 
authority  in  religious  instruction  than  those  in  the  public 
schools,  since  that  authority  is  directly  delegated  to  them 
by  the  parents;. and  one  of  the  common  reasons  for  choos- 
ing a  private  school  is  to  secure  a  certain  type  of  religious 
influence.  Thus  the  problem  of  religious  instruction  in 
private  schools  must  be  solved  variously  according  to  the 
aims  of  the  specific  school  and  its  relations  with  its  patrons. 
The  teaching,  however,  must  obey  the  same  principles  that 
should  guide  the  parent. 

So  with  the  teaching  in  the  Sunday  school.  This  institu- 
tion is  unique  among  all  those  concerned  in  the  education 
of  children,  as  the  only  one  devoted  entirely  to  ethical  and 
religious  instruction  and  inspiration.  The  Sunday  school 
can  accomplish  little  through  government  and  discipline, 
since  it  has  children  for  so  short  a  time  weekly  and  has  so 
slight  a  hold  upon  them.  It  may  do  something  in  deter- 
mining social  atmosphere,  and  the  personal  influence  of  the 


288  MORAL   EDUCATION 

teacher  may  be  very  important;  but  its  chief  function  is 
ethical  and  rehgious  instruction  and  inspiration.  In  this 
respect,  therefore,  the  Sunday  school  has  a  rare  oppor- 
tunity to  supplement  and  crown  the  work  of  the  week: 
untrammeled  by  the  conventional  aims  of  the  day  school, 
its  material  may  be  selected  and  lessons  arranged  wholly 
with  reference  to  the  highest  development  of  the  children. 

It  is  obvious,  then,  how  necessary  it  is  that  the  teachers 
in  the  Sunday  school  should  have  the  best  preparation  for 
their  work,  and  that  the  latter  should  be  planned  and  con- 
ducted in  obedience  to  the  best  ideas  of  modern  psychology 
and  education.  That  the  same  didactic  lessons  should  be 
used  in  the  Sunday  school  for  children  of  all  ages  is  one 
of  those  anomalous  survivals  showing  that  the  Sunday 
school  has  been  the  last  educational  institution  to  respond 
to  the  influence  of  the  modern  spirit.-^  It  is  responding  so 
powerfully  in  many  directions  today,  however,  that  there 
is  even  hope  its  progress  may  in  rare  instances  outstrip  that 
of  the  secular  schools. 

While  it  is  indispensable  that  a  better  training  of  the 
teachers  in  the  Sunday  schools  should  be  insured,  there 
have  been  advantages  in  the  fact  that  the  Sunday  school 
teacher's  contribution  has  been  that  of  a  friend,  volun- 
tarily given.  The  formal  study  of  the  day  school  is  quite 
undesirable  in  the  Sunday  school,  which  should  stand 
primarily  for  a  touch  with  life,  an  awakening  of  the  spirit. 
How  far  the  practice  of  regularly  paying  Sunday  school 
teachers  for  their  work,  if  generally  adopted,  would  tend 

^  Compare  Dawson's  study  on  Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible, 
Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  VII,  pp.  151-178,  showing  that  different 
parts  of  the  Bible  appeal  to  children  of  different  ages. 

See  also  G.  Stanley  Hall,  The  Moral  and  Religious  Training  of 
Childreij  and  Adolescents,  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  I,  pp.  196-210. 


THE  RELATION  OF  MORAL  TO  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  289 

to  spoil  this  quality  and  reduce  the  work  of  the  school  to 
formalism  is  an  open  question. 

Since  the  Sunday  school  has  so  rare  an  opportunity  to 
give  inspiration  for  noble  living,  as  well  as  religious  and 
ethical  instr^ action,  it  should  broaden  the  range  of  material 
it  utilizes.  The  value  we  have  found  history,  mythology 
and  literature  possess  in  this  connection  should  lead  to  a 
much  wider  use  of  material  from  these  fields  in  the  work 
of  the  Sunday  school.  However,  the  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  using  the  literature  of  the  Bible  in  secular  educa- 
tion give  an  additional  reason  for  emphasizing  in  Sunday 
school  work  material  drawn  from  that  source. 

In  all  the  religious  teaching  children  receive  in  the  Sunday 
school,  as  in  private  schools,  the  principles  which  should 
govern  the  teacher  are,  as  already  indicated,  those  which 
the  parent  should  obey.  To  these  principles  I  must  now 
turn.  For  those  parents  and  teachers  who  rest  quietly 
within  the  limits  of  a  finished  creed  the  situation  is  far 
more  comfortable  than  for  those  who  are  compelled  to 
struggle  with  doubt  and  questioning.  A  little  while  ago 
even  radicals  fell  within  the  former  class.  On  turning  the 
pages  of  Froebel's  Education  of  Man  one  is  surprised  to 
find  how  simple  and  clear  the  problem  of  religious  educa- 
tion seemed  to  that  great  reformer.  Alas !  how  many  of  us 
today  are  forced,  through  no  choice  of  our  own,  into  the 
arena,  and  compelled  to  struggle  ceaselessly  for  our  own 
faith!  The  great  upheaval  of  thought  in  modern  times, 
rendering  the  results  of  science  accessible  to  everyone, 
has  led  to  a  general  breaking  down  of  old  standards  and 
landmarks,  forcing  the  average  thinking  man  as  completely 
into  the  intellectual  arena  as  was  the  philosopher  of  former 
times.     The  result  is,  the  problem  of  religious  education  for 


290  MORAL   EDUCATION 

those  who  fall  within  this  group  centres  in  discovering  what 
we  may  dare  to  teach  children,  on  the  basis  of  what  we  our- 
selves may  dare  to  accept  as  the  foundation  of  our  lives. 

Both  classes  of  parents  and  teachers  need  to  recognize 
the  following  guiding  principles : 

It  is  never  safe  or  wise  to  teach  as  true  that  of  which  we 
ourselves  are  in  doubt.  We  are  often  tempted  to  do  this, 
realizing,  as  we  frequently  must,  that  a  dogmatic  teaching 
received  in  our  childhood  has  given  a  moral  backbone 
through  a  later  period  of  liberalized  belief.  Yet  to  teach, 
for  this  ulterior  purpose,  a  creed  from  which  we  have 
graduated  is  most  dangerous.  If  the  child  comes  to  react 
against  the  creed,  as  he  is  almost  sure  to  do,  his  doubt  of 
the  teaching  will  be  accompanied  by  the  far  more  blasting 
doubt  of  the  teacher.^  On  the  other  hand  it  is  safe,  though 
for  further  reasons  often  not  advisable,  to  teach  children 
anything  we  do  earnestly  believe;  for  if  the  child  comes 
to  doubt  the  creed,  he  will  nevertheless  keep  his  faith  in  the 
sincerity  of  the  parent  or  teacher,  and  this  will  be  a  sheet- 
anchor  in  the  time  of  storm  and  stress. 

As  in  all  other  phases  of  instruction,  it  is  necessary  to 
consider  the  stage  of  the  child's  development  and  not 
attempt  to  force  upon  him  conceptions  to  which  he  cannot 
rise.^  To  be  sure,  as  there  is  but  one  beauty  for  children 
and  adults,  so  truth  is  one,  but  the  growth  into  its  appre- 

*"We  are  not  bound  to  teach  children  all  we  know,  but  we  are  most 
solemnly  bound  not  to  teach  them  anything  which  we  feel  to  be 
doubtful  as  though  it  were  certain,  and  still  more  are  we  bound  not  to 
teach  them  anything  of  which  we  ourselves  begin  to  suspect  the 
reality." — F.  W.  Farrar,  The  Higher  Criticism  and  the  Teaching 
of  the  Young,  in  The  Bible  and  the  Child,  p.  22. 

2  "All  control  is  wrong  that  attempts  to  fetter  the  child  with  a  man's 
thoughts,   a  man's   motives,  or  a  man's   creed." — J.  L.  Hughes 
Froehel's  Educational  Laws,  p.  166. 


THE  RELATION  OF  MORAL  TO  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  291 

elation  must  be  gradual  and  unhastened.  When  children 
seven  years  old  get  up  in  prayer-meeting  and  confess  to  a 
consciousness  of  *sin  and  a  need  of  regeneration,  this  prin- 
ciple has  been  sadly  violated  in  the  religious  instruction 
they  have  received.  So  the  child  conceives  the  world  and 
its  forces,  as  we  have  seen,  in  terms  of  personality,  and  it  is 
foolish  and  futile  to  attempt  to  force  upon  him  the  abstract 
conceptions  in  regard  to  the  great  theses  of  spiritual  faith 
which  are  possible  to  a  mature  and  philosophic  mind. 
Thus  it  is  well  not  to  disturb  the  trusting,  naturally 
anthropomorphic  attitude  of  the  child,  holding  definite 
religious  instruction  in  abeyance,  and  letting  it  come 
largely  by  indirection.  Yet  the  period  of  simple  trustful- 
ness naturally  passes  into  that  of  conscious  questioning, 
and  we  shirk  part  of  our  responsibility,  when  the  later 
period  comes,  unless  we  do  everything  in  our  power  to 
help  the  individual  to  clarify  his  thinking  and  come  to 
terms  as  best  he  may  with  the  ultimate  problems  of  life. 
Our  service  here  should  be  to  aid  and  guide  the  awakening 
mind  of  the  child  or  youth,  rather  than  to  transfer  our  own 
beliefs  didactically  to  him.  Thus  it  is  well  to  help  the 
student  to  understand  as  early  as  possible  that  faith,  if  a 
precious  working-basis  of  life,  is  constantly  changing  under 
the  influence  of  study  and  experience.  However  sure  he 
may  be  or  may  become  with  reference  to  certain  basal 
questions,  the  content  of  the  answers  he  gives  them  and  the 
whole  horizon  of  his  belief  will  change  somewhat  with 
every  step  of  his  growth,  and  the  complete  absence  of  such 
change  would  indicate  stagnation  in  the  intellectual  life. 

It  is  wise  to  allow  children  considerable  contact  with 
forms  of  faith  other  than  the  parent's  own.  The  only  type 
of  influence  to  be  rigorously  avoided  is  the  superficial 


292  MORAL   EDUCATION 

cynicism,  the  evil  effects  of  which  I  have  already  pointed 
out.  If  this  be  avoided,  a  variety  of  influences  will  be 
helpful,  leading  the  child  to  recognize  the  fact  that  equally 
earnest  and  lovable  people  differ  radically  on  the  great 
questions,  and  helping  him  to  learn  toleration  by  prac- 
tising it.  Often  the  children  of  liberal  parents  need  such 
contact  with  a  variety  of  influences,  even  more  than  other 
children,  in  order  to  escape  that  worst  form  of  intolerance 
which  springs  from  a  reaction  against  the  faiths  of  others 
and  imagines  itself  quite  free  from  error. 

In  all  I  have  said  it  is  evident  that  two  different  aims  are 
before  us  in  the  task  of  religious  instruction.  We  want 
to  aid  the  child  and  youth  to  build  as  earnest  and  strong 
a  foundation  of  faith  as  possible,  on  which  the  super- 
structure of  noble  living  may  be  erected;  at  the  same  time 
we  want  to  keep  the  individual  open  to  new  experience 
and  to  the  new  truth,  or  perspective  of  truth,  which  comes 
from  it,  and  thus  to  make  growth,  in  faith  as  in  conduct, 
deep  and  long-continued.  The  fine  balance  between 
these  two  elements  is  difficult  indeed  to  attain.  To  reach 
or  approximate  it,  inspiration  is  far  more  important  than 
instruction.  The  impress  of  the  higher  religious  spirit 
and  attitude,  let  me  repeat,  is  the  great  need.  If  that 
impress  is  given  through  all  the  influences — books,  teach- 
ers, parents — to  which  the  child  is  subjected,  we  may  dare 
to  trust  life  with  all  its  stress  and  pain,  its  periods  of  doubt 
and  reaction,  and  hope  that  through  all  may  remain  the 
influence  of  wonder,  reverence  and  enthusiasm  to  trans- 
figure the  moral  life. 


CONCLUSION 

Our  work  together  now  draws  to  a  close.  We  have 
studied  the  aim  of  moral  education  and  the  great  forces 
and  influences  we  may  utiHze  in  developing  the  noblest 
human  life.  We  hope  for  no  kingdom  of  heaven  from 
the  education  advocated,  even  were  it  put  into  immediate 
and  universal  application:  v/e  may  trust  that  every  step 
in  fostering  such  culture  in  one  individual  will  make  life 
more  joyous  and  helpful  and  better  worth  while  for  him 
and  for  all  others.  Increasing  self-mastery  and  intelligent, 
free  response  to  the  order  of  the  universe  should  come  from 
such  education,  with  an  ever  greater  power  to  recover 
from  the  mistakes  and  marring  faults  of  our  yesterdays. 
Thus  endless  power  of  growth  may  be  our  heritage,  growth 
toward  the  highest  that  is  ever  higher  as  we  climb. 

To  give  such  education,  the  one  requisite  behind  all 
others  is  that  we  be  willing  to  give  ourselves  to  our  children. 
The  wise  guidance  of  the  child's  activities  in  work  and 
play,  the  regulation  of  the  environing  conditions  that  in- 
fluence him,  the  helpful  conduct  of  government  and  dis- 
cipline, the  direct  and  indirect  instruction  we  give  him, 
as  well  as  the  most  helpful  personal  influence,  all  depend 
upon  daily,  continuous  and  loving  companionship  with 
our  children.  Without  such  companionship  we  cannot 
even  understand  the  problem,  much  less  contribute  to  its 
solution.  Some  parents  and  teachers  give  this  com- 
panionship without  thought  or  efl'ort,  enjoying  by  nature 


294  MORAL   EDUCATION 

every  phase  of  it.  Others  find  far  less  pleasure  in  joining 
children  in  work  and  play;  and  such  parents  and  teachers 
must  plan  consciously  to  give  the  measure  of  companion- 
ship with  their  children  indispensable  to  all  good  influence. 
To  turn  children  over  almost  entirely  to  hired  servants, 
seeing  the  children  but  occasionally,  as  some  parents  do, 
is  really  to  abandon  the  problem  of  moral  education. 
Whether  easy  or  difficult  for  us,  it  is  only  as  the  friends 
and  comrades  of  our  children  that  we  can  establish  a  moral 
atmosphere  in  which  any  influence  can  work  helpfully. 

Education  is  difficult,  almost  as  difficult  as  life.  Mean- 
while, every  parent  and  teacher  is  face  to  face  with  the 
problem,  and  it  presses  for  immediate  solution  at  every 
step.  No  matter  what  progress  education  may  make  in 
the  future,  for  the  children  with  whom  we  are  associated 
*now  is  the  acceptable  time  of  the  Lord,'  and  there  is  no 
other.  Each  moment  presents  its  own  opportunity  for 
just  one  moment;  gone,  it  is  irrevocable.  We  must  sum- 
mon all  our  courage,  gird  up  our  spirits,  use  all  the  wis- 
dom we  have,  but  strive  7iow,  trusting  that  with  all  our 
v/eakness  and  limitations,  the  great  universe  will  cooperate 
with  us  if  we  earnestly  do  our  best. 

For  all  that  we  give  how  great  is  the  return!  Every 
worker  in  the  field  of  adult  education  knows  how  much 
more  the  teacher  is  taught  than  the  student.  The  greatest 
value  of  the  social  settlement  has  been  to  the  social  settler; 
the  university-extension  lecturer  learns  more  from  his 
audience  than  he  can  ever  hope  to  teach  them;  while  the 
minister,  the  reformer,  the  neighborhood  visitor,  find  life 
illuminated,  deepened  and  sweetened  for  them  by  the  ser- 
vice they  seek  to  do.  It  is  in  our  work  with  children  that 
this  principle  of  the  return  of  the  good  deed  upon  the  doer 


CONCLUSION  295 

finds  its  highest  appHcation.  It  is  the  moral  education  of 
the  parent  and  the  teacher  that  is  achieved  far  more  than 
that  of  the  child.  How  we  are  educated  in  self-control, 
patience,  quiet  putting  aside  of  our  selfish  whims,  by  all  the 
effort  we  put  forth  to  educate  morally  our  children! 

Those  who  are  not  blessed  with  children  often  look  pity- 
ingly at  the  over-burdened  parent,  wondering  how  he 
(it  is  more  often  she)  can  go  on  so  cheerfully,  accepting 
the  seemingly  impossible  task  without  chafing  under  it. 
They  do  not  understand,  these  unblessed  people  on  the 
outside,  unless  a  loving  heart  expressed  in  loving  service 
of  little  children  has  made  them  share  in  the  larger  mother- 
hood and  fatherhood.  But  every  wise  parent,  who  is  the 
friend  and  companion  of  his  child,  knows  that  ''children 
pay  their  way  as  they  go."  It  is  not  that  they  will 
return  in  our  age  the  care  we  have  given  to  their  child- 
hood: no,  but  that  now,  day  by  day,  the  child  does 
more  in  educating  the  parent  than  the  most  devoted 
parent  can  do  for  the  child.  Living,  as  we  have  found 
children  do,  in  the  presence  of  the  great  verities  not  var- 
nished over  with  the  conventions  of  our  adult  life,  children 
bring  us  constantly  into  the  presence  of  these  eternal  bases 
of  life.  It  is  thus  that  the  child  is  a  missionary  to  fallen 
humanity.  It  is  thus  the  child  world  reacts  ever  upon 
the  adult  world,  bringing  it  back  to  truth  and  beauty  and 
love  and  song.  It  was  said:  "Except  ye  become  as  little 
children  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
Surely  no  one  ever  saw  into  that  kingdom  of  the  spirit 
without  looking  through  the  eyes  of  a  little  child ;  and  the 
patient,  consistent  care  and  love,  the  gift  of  time,  thought 
and  companionship,  the  earnest  seeking  of  the  child's  best 
good  through  all  the  doubt,  trouble,  questioning  and  mi 


296  MORAL    EDUCATION 

takes  that  must  come — all  this  is  repaid — how  wonder^ 
fully! — by  the  vistas  of  the  spirit  that  are  opened  up  to 
us,  the  softened  tenderness  of  our  own  hearts,  the  deepest 
wisdom  of  experience,  and  the  unlocking  of  all  the  mystery 
of  joy  and  tears. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Note  to  Students. — The  aim  has  not  been  to  make  the  follow- 
ing bibliography  all-inclusive,  but  to  give  a  practical  working  list 
of  the  best  books  and  articles  bearing  on  the  aspects  of  moral 
education  treated  in  this  volume.  Material  of  no  value  has  been 
rigorously  excluded,  together  with  books  and  articles  quite  super- 
seded by  more  recent  work.  Emphasis  has  of  course  been  placed 
on  the  literature  of  the  subject  in  English.  The  bibliography  has 
been  frankly  annotated  with  the  aim  of  making  it  more  practically 
helpful  to  students.  Publishers'  names,  with  place  and  date  of 
publication,  are  given  in  the  foot-notes  only  where  the  books  or 
articles  referred  to  are  not  listed  in  the  bibliography. 

Abbott,  Jacob.     Gentle  Measures  in  the  Management  and  Training 

of  the  Young.    Pp.  330.     Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York,  1872. 

Excellent  in  its  day  and,  though  somewhat  old-fashioned,  still  helpful. 

A  Lecture  on  Moral  Education  delivered  in  Boston, 

before    the  American  Institute  of  Instruction,  August  26,   1831. 

Pp.  22.     Hilliard,  Gray,  Little  &  Wilkins,  Boston,  1831. 

An  interesting  early  example  of  the  effort  to  apply  the  principle  of 
self-government  in   school   discipline. 

The    Teacher:    Moral  Influences  Employed  in  the 

Instruction  and  Government  of  the  Young.    Pp.  353.    Harper  & 

Brothers,  Xew  York,  1856. 

Good  common  sense  and  benevolent  counsel  with  concrete  illustra- 
tion. Coming  from  the  period  of  the  first  strong  reaction  in  America 
against  physical  force  in  education. 

Adams,  John.  Relation  of  the  School  Studies  to  Moral  Training. 
In  Third  Year  Book  of  the  National  Herbart  Society,  pp. 
73-100.     University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago,  1897. 

Addams,  Jane.  Democracy  and  Social  Ethics.  Pp.  ix-f  281.  The 
Macmillan   Co.,    Xew   York,    1902. 

Ab  excellent  presentation,  on  the  basis  of  appreciative  experience,  of 
the  social  problem  moral  education  must  strive  to  meet. 


298  MORAL    EDUCATION 


Addams,  Jane,  et.  al.     Philanthropy  and    Social  Progress.     Seven 

Essays  delivered  before  the  School  of  Applied  Ethics,  Plvmouth, 

Mass.,  1892.     Pp.  xi+268.     T.   Y.  Crowell  &  Co.,  New  York, 

1893. 

An  excellent  book  by  several  leaders  in  social  reform,  illuminating 
the  whole  social  and  educational  problem.  The  first  two  chapters  by 
Miss  Addams, — I,  The  Subjective  Necessity  for  fc^ocial  Settlements;  and 
II,  The  Objective  Value  of  a  Social  Settlement, — are  especially  valuable. 

Adler,  Felix.     The   Moral  Instruction  of   Children.     Pp.  xiii+270. 

International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York, 

1895. 

The  best  book  in  the  field  of  ethical  instruction.  Presents  interest- 
ingly a  mass  of  loosely  graded  material,  drawn  from  the  Bible,  myth- 
ology and  folk-lore.  Somewhat  too  free  in  changing  and  adapting 
primitive    material. 

The  Moral  Instruction  of  the  Young.     Reprint  from 

The  Ethical  Record,  vol.  II,  pp.  83-97.    Philadelphia,  July  1889. 

A  brief  preliminary  statement  of  Professor  Adler's  scheme  of  ethical 
instruction. 


Aldrich,  Auretta  Roys.   Children:  Their  Models  and  Critics.  Pp.  v-f- 

158.     Harper  &  Brothers,   New  York,   1893. 

An  expression  of  the  modern  kindergarten  movement.  Good  in 
taking  the  child's  point  of  \dew,  but  fails  to  recognize  the  hard,  strength- 
giving  elements  of  life.     Recommends  too  much   'managing'   of  children. 

Aldrich,  Thomas  Bailey.  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy.  Pp.  ivH-261.  Hough- 
ton, Mifllin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1892. 

A  pleasant  story  of  childhood,  probably  largely  autobiographical. 
Good  in  showing  the  value  of  the  natural  relations  of  boys  to  each  other. 

Allen,  Ezra.  The  Pedagogy  of  Myth  in  the  Grades.  In  Pedagogical 
Seminary,  vol.  VIII,  pp.  258-277.     Worcester,  June  1901. 

Attempts  to  answer  three  questions,  '  The  Why,  the  How  and  the 
What  of  Myth  in  the  Grades.'     Some  valuable  lists. 

Amicis,  Edmondo  de.  The  Heart  of  a  Boy ;  (Cuore)  A  Schoolboy's 
Journal.     Translated  by   G.  Mantellini.     Pp.    290.     Laird   & 

Lee,  Chicago,  (copyright)  1899. 

A  charming  story  of  Italian  school-boy  life,  with  direct  moral  lessons. 
One  of  the  best  books  available  on  moral  education,  and  might  be  used 
as  a  text  for  ethical  instruction. 

Aristotle.  Politics.  Translated  with  an  analysis  and  critical 
notes  by  J.  E.  C.  Welldon.  Pp.  xcvi+412.  The  Macmillan 
Co.,  New  York,  1897. 

See  especially  book  IV,  chapters  XIV-XVII,  and  all  of  book  V.  Aris- 
totle's Nicomachean  Ethics  (translated  with  an  analyis  and  critical  notes 
by  J.  E.  C.  Welldon,  pp.  lxvii-l-352,  the  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York, 
1892),  while  containing  no  definite  treatment  of  education,  is  of  perma- 
nent value  in  defining  the  type  of  character  education  shoiild  foster,  and 
in  emphasizing  the  value  of  moral  habit. 


i 


,    UNIVERSITY 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  ^'•^^^iiSSS^  299 


Bain,    Alexander.      Education     as    a    Science.      Pp.    xxvii-}-453. 
The  International  Scientific  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New 
York,  1902. 

See  chapter  XII,  pp.  398-424,  on  Moral  Education.  Good  but  slight 
treatment  including  outline  of  ethical  instruction. 

Baker,  James  H.     Education  and  Life:      Papers    and    Addresses. 

Pp.  X4-254.     Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  New  York,  1900. 

See  pp.  92-102,  "Moral  Training,"  and  pp.  103-115,  "Can  Virtue 
Be  Taught."     Pleasant  general  discussion. 

Baldwin,  James  Mark.  Mental  Development  in  the  Child  and  the 
Race:  Methods  and  Processes.  Pp.  xvi+496.  The  Macmillan 
Co.,  New  York,  1895. 

An  excellent,  theoretic  discussion,  much  of  it  bearing  indirectly  on 
moral  education,  as  in  the  treatment  of  Habit,  Accommodation,  and 
VoUtion. 

Social  and  Ethical  Interpretations  in  Mental 


Development:    A    Study   in  Social   Psychology.     Pp.  xiv4-574. 

The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1897. 

As  in  the  previous  volume,  portions  indirectly  touching  moral  educa- 
tion; httle  directly  dealing  with  the  problem,  except  the  brief  chapter 
on  Play. 

Baldwin,  Joseph.  Psychology  Applied  to  the  Art  of  Teaching. 
Pp.  xiv-|-389.  International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton 
&  Co.,  New  York,  1897. 

A  meager  and  somewhat  old-fashioned  text-book.  Occasional  helpful 
suggestions. 

Ballantine,  W.  G.  Religious  and  Moral  Education  through  Chris- 
tian Associations  and  Young  PeopWs  Societies.  In  Proceedings 
of  the  Religious  Education  Association,  1903,  pp.  148-156. 
Executive  Office  of  the  Association,  Chicago,  1903. 

Barnes,  Anna  Kbhler.  Children's  Ideas  of  Lady  and  Gentleman. 
In  Studies  in  Education,  edited  by  Earl  Barnes,  vol.  II,  pp. 

141-150. 

An  inductive  study  comparing  English  and  American  school  children, 
with  conclusions  touching  the  influence  of  democracy  and  social  environ- 
ment on  character. 

Barnes,  Earl.  Books  and  Pamphlets  Intended  to  Give  Sex-In- 
formation. In  Studies  in  Education,  edited  by  Earl  Barnes, 
vol.  I,  pp.  301-308. 

— '■ —  The  Child  as  a  Social  Factor.  In  Studies  in  Educa- 
tion, edited  by  Earl  Barnes,  vol.  I,  pp.  355-360. 

Children's  Attitude   Towards  Theology.     In  Studies 

in   Education,   edited  by  Earl   Barnes,  vol.   II,   pp.  283-307. 

Reviews  pre^'ious  studies  by  Mr.  Barnes  and  others.  Takes  radical 
ground  as  to  the  need  of  teaching  children  the  theology  in  which  Christian 
civilization  is  rooted.  In  reaction,  though  from  the  evolutionary  view- 
point, against  the  extreme  secularization  of  American  education. 


^/ 


300  MORAL   EDUCATION 


—     Children's  Ideals.      In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol. 

VII,  pp.  1-12.     Worcester,  April  1900. 

An  inductive  study  based  on  2,100  papers  from  London  children.  Com- 
parisons with  resuhs  from  previous  American  study.  The  conclusions 
interesting  for  moral  education.  See  further:  "Children's  Attitude 
Toward  Future  Occupations,"  in  Studies  in  Education,  vol.  IL  PP-  243- 
258;  the  "Type  Study  on  Ideals,"  running  through  nine  numbers  of 
Studies  in  Education,  vol.  II;  and  "Ideals  of  New  York  Kindergarten 
Children,"  in  Kindergarten  Magazine,  October  1903,  pp.  86-100.  The 
last  is  the  only  important  inductive  study  yet  made  in  the  ideals  of 
children  under  seven  or  eight  years  of  age. 

The  Development  of  Children's  Political  Ideas ;  and 


Political  Ideas  of  American  Children.     In  Studies  in  Education, 
edited  by  Earl  Barnes,  vol.   II,   pp.    5-30. 

Two  statistical  studies  into  children's  ideals.  The  longer  study  deals 
with  papers  of  English  children  wishing  to  be  like  Queen  Victoria;  the 
briefer  with  the  attitude  of  American  children  toward  President  McKinley. 

—     Punishment  as  Seen   hy  Children.     In    Pedagogical 

Seminary,    \ol.  Ill,   pp.   235-245.     AVorcester,   October   1S95. 

An  inductive  study  of  children's  ^-iews  of  just  and  unjust  punishment. 
Its  conclusions  are  suggestive  with  reference  to  discipline.  Compare: 
Mr.  Barnes's  later  study  on  "The  Growth  of  Social  Judgment,"  Studies 
in  Education,  vol.  II,  pp.  203-217;  and  the  type  study  on  "DiscipUne," 
running  through  eight  numbers  of  Studies  in  Education,  vol.  I. 

Editor,  Studies  in  Education,  vol.  I,  second  edition. 


pp.  400,  Philadelphia,    1903;    vol.   II,    pp.    ii+400,  Philadel- 
phia,  1902.     Published  by  the  editor. 

These  two  volumes  represent,  with  the  inductive  studies  in  the  Peda- 
gogical Seminary,  the  best  work  yet  done  in  the  statistical  study  of 
children.  Many  of  the  studies  are  by  the  editor,  and  the  rest  are  by  his 
students.  The  second  volume  is  especially  illuminating  in  the  compara- 
tive studies  of  American  and  Enghsh  children.  Many  of  the  studies  in 
both  volumes  and  much  of  the  editor's  interpretative  comment  bear 
directly  on  the  problem  of  moral  education. 

Barnett,  P.  A.      Common  Sense  in  Education  and  Teaching:    An 

Introduction  to  Practice.      Pp.  ix-|-321.      Longmans,  Green,  & 

Co.,  New  York,  1S99. 

See  especially  chapter  II,  The  Discipline  of  Character.  Modern, 
loosely  comprehensive. 

—    —     Editor.     Teaching  and  Organization ;  with  Special 

Reference  to  Secondary  Schools;  A  Manual  of  Practice.  Pp.  xix-f- 

419.     Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  New  York,  1S97. 

An  excellent  general  manual  by  several  British  authorities.  See 
especially  articles  on:  "The  Criteria  in  Education,"  pp.  1-13;  "Organiza- 
tion and  Curricula,"  pp.  14-33;  "Form  Management,"  pp.  295-312; 
"Health  and  Physical  Culture,"  pp.  356-383. 

Barrows,  W.     Teaching  of  Morals  in  the  Public  Schools.     In  New 
Englander,  vol.  XLIII,  pp.  840-850.      New  Haven,  November 

1884. 

Review  of  Massachusetts  laws  and  practice.  Advocates  non-sectarian 
moral  instruction  in  public  schools. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  301 

Bartlett,  Elisha.  The  Head  and  the  Heart,  or  the  Relative  Im- 
portance of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Education.  A  lecture,  de- 
livered before  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction,  in  Lowell, 
August  1838.     Pp.  20.     Ticknor  &  Co.,  Boston,  1838. 

An  effective  appeal  for  moral  as  against  merely  intellectual  education. 
Superseded,  but  interesting  in  showing  how  old  is  the  demand  for  the 
culture  of  character  in  American  education. 

Bashkirtseff,  Marie.  The  Journal  of  a  Young  Artist.  Trans- 
lated by  Mary  J.  Serrano.  Pp.  viii4-434.  Cassell&Co.,  New 
York,  (copyright)  1889. 

Full  of  concrete  material  bearing  on  the  moral  influence  of  environ- 
ment,— personal  and  social, — books,  travel.  Especially  valuable  for 
moral  education  in  the  period  of  youthful  reaction. 

Beebe,  Katherine.      The  First  School  Year;  For  Primary  Workers. 
Pp.  147.     The  Wemer  Co.,  Chicago,  (copyright)   1895. 

A  bright,  simple  exposition  of  thought  based  on  the  kindergarten. 
Occasional  sviggestions  for  moral  education. 

Bell,  Sanford.  A  Study  of  the  Teacher's  Influence.  In  Peda- 
gogical Seminary,  vol.  VII,  pp.  492-525.     Worcester,  1900. 

A  study  based  on  answers,  furnished  by  students  in  normal  school  and 
college,  to  a  questionnaire.  Suggestive  results  with  reference  to  the 
personal  influence  of  teachers  over  young  people. 

Betts,  Lillian  W.  The  Leaven  in  a  Great  City.  Pp.  vi+315. 
Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

Interesting  concrete  account  of  New  York  social  conditions  in  tene- 
mient  houses,  w^orking-girls'  clubs,  home  Ufe  and  social  settlements.  Val- 
uable, like  the  books  of  Jacob  Riis,  in  showing  the  new  moral  problems 
presented  by  modern  city  life. 

The  Story  of  an  East-Side  Family.     Pp.  iii+342. 

Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.,  New  York,  1903. 

A  story  of  the  whole  history  of  a  unit  family  among  those  struggling 
with  poverty,  overcrowding  and  drunkenness  in  the  poorer  quarters  of 
a  great  city.  Presents  one  great  social  phase  of  the  problem  of  moral 
education. 

Bierbower,  Austin.     Ethics  for  Schools.     Pp.  294.    Hinds  &  Noble, 
New  York,   (copyright)   1903. 
Conventional  analysis  of  duties.     Intended  as  a  text  for  high  schools. 

Bikkers,  Alex.  V.  W.,  and  Hatton,  Joseph.  Ethics  for  Unde- 
nominational Schools.  Translated  from  the  German  of  Dr. 
Wilhelm  Fricke  .  .  .  and  adapted  to  the  Use  of  English 
Schools'and   Families.     Pp.  156.     Grant  &  Co.,  London,  1872. 

An  interesting  older  attempt  to  make  a  text-book  for  the  ethical  in- 
struction of  children.  Resembles  the  French  manuals.  Didactic 
lessons,  illustrated  by  maxims  and  quotations  (sources  not  given), 
with  detailed  explanations. 

Blackall,     C.    R.   ..Sunday  School    Organization  for  the   Purpose 

of    Religious    Instruction.      In    Proceedings    of    the    Religious 

Education  Association,   1903,  pp.   175-185.      Executive  Office 

of  th©  Association,  Chicago,  1903. 


302  MORAL    EDUCATION 

—'Blackv/ell,  Elizabeth.  Counsel  to  Parents  on  the  Moral  Educa- 
tion of  Their  Children,  in  Relation  to  Sex.  Pp.  160.  Hatch- 
ards,  London,  18S2. 

One  of  the  best  books  available  on  the  instruction  of  children  in  the 
intimate  problems  of  human  hfe.  Occasional  over-statement,  but  in  the 
main  sound  in  spirit. 

Blow,  Susan  E.  The  Kindergarten  Ideal  of  Nurture.  In  Report 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1902,  vol.  I,  pp.  594- 
602.     Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1903. 

Excellent  statement  of  the  aims  of  the  kindergarten,  with  answers  to 
some  misconceptions  and  criticisms. 

—      Letters  to  a  Mother  on  the  Philosophy  of  Froebel. 

Pp.  xix+311.     International   Education    Series,  D.  Appleton 
&  Co.,  New  York,  1899. 

Follows  Symbolic  Education  in  a  more  conversational  style. 

Symbolie  Education.     A  commentary  on  Froe- 


bel's  "Mother  Play."     Pp.  xvi+251.     International  Education 

Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1895. 

One  of  the  best  modern  interpretations  of  Froebel,  modified  by 
Hegelianism. 

Bohannon,  E.  W.  A  Study  of  Peculiar  and  Exceptional  Children. 
In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  IV,  pp.  3-60.  Worcester,  Octo- 
ber 1896. 

An  inductive  study  based  on  1,045  answers  to  a  questionnaire.  Aims 
to  aid  teachers  to  understand  the  individual  cnild.  Some  helpful 
pedagogical   conclusions. 

Bondois,  Marguerite.     E Enseignement  de  I'Histoire  et    la  Morale. 

In  Revue  Universitaire,   Annee  10,  pp.  333-338.     1901. 

A  criticism  of  the  indiscriminate  teaching  of  historical  facts  without 
making  pupils  aware  of  the  moral  meaning  of  history.  Claims  that 
thus  admiration  for  mere  power  and  brilhancy  is  awakened. 

Boutwell,  George  S.  Thoughts  on  Educational  Topics  and  In- 
stitutions.    Pp.  365.     Phillips,  Sampson  &  Co.,  Boston,  1859. 

Expression  of  the  old-time  educational  leadership  in  Massachusetts. 
Echoes  of  the  struggle  to  show  that  free  schools  are  not  immoral  nor  a 
menace  to  the  public:  interesting  in  the  light  of  the  recently  revived 
discussion  of  religion  in  the  schools. 

Bowker,    Richard    Rogers.     The    Arts    of    Life.     Pp.    viii+306. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1900. 
See  especially  "Of  Education,"  pp.  49-95. 

Brackett,  Anna  C,  Editor.  The  Education  of  American  Girls, 
Considered  in  a  Series  of  Essays.  Pp.  401.  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons,  New  York,  1874. 

By  distinguished  leaders  of  the  woman's  movement  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago,  and  written  mainly  in  answer  to  Dr.  E.  H.  Clarke.  Echoes 
from  the  flood-tide  of  the  coeducation  movement :  well  worth  re-reading 
now  that  the  ebb-tide  is  quietly  setting  in.  Much  bearing  incidentally 
on  moral  education. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  808 

Bracq,  Jean  Charlemagne.  Moral  and  Religious  Instrvdion  -in 
France.  In  Educational  Review,  vol.  XXIII,  pp.  325-337. 
New  York,  April  1902. 

An  excellent  brief  review  of  the  present  program  of  ethical  instruction 
in  the  public  schools  of  France.  Lists  of  French  text-books  given  in 
notes. 

Braun,  Th.  Principes  d' Education  et  d' Instruction  Populaire. 
Pp.  219.     A,  Jamar,  Brussels,  1850. 

Excellent  in  its  day  and  still  of  value.  Gives  a  general  view  of  educa- 
tion in  home  and  school,  with  specific  counsel  to  parents  and  teachers 
regarding  discipline. 

Briggs,  Le  Baron  Russell.      School,    College   and   Character.     Pp. 

vi+148.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1901. 

A  sane  protest  against  some  extremes  of  the  new  education.  Empha- 
sizes work  and  discipline. 

Some    Old-fashioned    Doubts    about 

New-fashioned  Education.     In  Atlantic  Monthly,  vol.  LXXXVI, 
pp.  463-470.     Boston,  October  1900. 

An  expression  of  the  reaction  against  the  elective  system  and  the 
new  education.  A  suggestive  article  with  impUcations  throughout  for 
moral  education. 

Brockman,  F.  S.  A  Study  of  the  Moral  and  Religious  Life  of 
251  Preparatory  Students  in  the  United  States.  In  Pedagog- 
ical Seminary,  vol.  IX,  pp.  255-273.  Worcester,  September 
1902. 

The  most  important  conclusion  of  this  inductive  study  is  its  emphasis 
of  the  need  of  instructing  boys  in  the  intimate  problems  of  human  life. 

Brunetiere,  F.       Education   et   Instruction.     Pp.    107.      Didot   et 

Cie.,  Paris,  1S95. 

A_  stimulating  little  book,  opposing  commercialism,  athletics  and 
speciaUzation  in  education,  and  urging  the  cultivation  of  aocioi  virtues 
and  ideals.  If  prejudiced  in  its  negative  contentions,  in  its  affirmative 
ones  it  is  fine  and  noble. 

Bryan,  E.  B.      Nascent  Stages  and  Their  Pedagogical  Significance. 

In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  VII,   pp.  357-396.      Worcester, 

October  1900. 

An  effort  to  gather  up  the  results  and  point  the  educational  applications 
of  the  various  studies  of  genetic  development  previously  made.  Describes 
the  periods  of  growth,  and  is  especially  strong  in  suggestions  for  the 
treatment  of  childhood. 

Bryant,  Sophie.       Educational   Ends;   or,    The   Ideal   of   Personal 

Development.     Pp.  x-1-292.     Longmans,  Green,  &Co.,  London, 

1887. 

A  theoretic  ethical  discussion  seeking  to  outline  the  educational  ideal 
in  intellect  and  character. 

—      Short  Studies  in  Character.     Pp.  vii+247.     The 

Macmillan  Co.,  New  York.     Xo  date. 

A  book  composed  of  lectures.  Part  II  (pp.  139-247)  contains  soma 
excellent,  suggestive  chapters  on  moral  education. 


304  MORAL    EDUCATION 

Buck,  Gertrude.      Another    Phase    of    the    New     Education.     In 
Forum,  vol.  XXII,  pp.  376-384.    New  York,  November  1896. 
Describes  the   'culture-epoch  school'  experiment  in  Detroit. 

Buck,  Winifred.     Bo7js'  Self-Governing  Clubs.     Pp.  ix4-218.     The 

Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1903. 

An  excellent  study  of  the  value  of  clubs  for  boys,  with  full  information 
and  counsel  as  to  forming  and  guiding  them. 

Buisson,  F.     Education  of  the  Will.     Closing  lecture  of  the  Course 

in  Pedagogy  delivered  at  the  Sorbonne,  1899.     In  Report  of 

the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1902,  vol.  I,  pp.  721-740. 

Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1903. 

Gives  a  condensed  statement  of  Buisson^s  philosophy  of  moral  educa- 
tion in  relation  to  French  life. 

Editor.     Dictionnaire   de   Pedagogic   et   d' Instruction 

Primaire.     Part  I,  2  vols.,  pp.  3,108;  and  part  II,  2  vols.,  pp. 

vii+2491.     Hachette  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1382-1888. 

The  first  part  of  this  great  work  is  devoted  to  educational  theory  and 
history,  the  second  part  to  practical  applications.  See  articles  under 
the  various  heading*  of  moral  education,  aa  "  Discipline  Scolaire," 
"Punitions,"  "  Ob^issance,"  etc. 

Bulkley,  Julia  E.      Social  Ethics  in  the  Schools.     In  Forum,  vol. 

XXVI,  pp.  615-620.     New  York,  January  1899. 

A  good  article;  opposed  to  corporal  punishment  in  schools;  advocates 
direct  teaching  of  social  ethics  as  a  means  of  discipline. 

Burdette,  Robert  J.,  et  al.  Before  He  is  Twenty.  Five  Per- 
plexing Phases  of  the  Boy  Qu£stion  Considered.  Pp.  104.  The 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  Chicago,  (copyright)  1894. 

Popular  papers  by  various  writers.  The  first.  The  Father  and  His 
Boy,  is  the  one  of  most  value  for  moral  education. 

Burk,    Frederic    L.       Teasing      and     Bullying.      In  Pedagogical 

Seminar^',  vol.  IV,  pp.  336-371.     Worcester,  April  1897. 

An  inductive  study,  presenting  a  large  amount  of  painful  material 
expressing  the  darker  side  of  children's  activities.  The  conclusions  are 
all  in  the  form  of  questions,  but  suggest  important  investigations  and 
reflections. 

Burnham,  William  H.  The  Study  of  Adolescence.  In  Pedagog- 
ical Seminary,  vol.  I,  pp.  174-195.     Worcester,  1891. 

A  helpful  article,  tentative  but  full  of  suggestions  for  other  workers. 

Butler,  N.  M.,  Editor.  Education  in  the  United  States.  A  Series 
of  Monographs  prepared  for  the  United  States  Exhibit  at  the 
Paris  Exposition,  1900,  2  vols.,  pp.  xviii-i-977.  The  J.  B.  Lyon 
Co.,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1900. 

An  excellent  general  survey  of  present  American  education  in  its 
different  aspects. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  305 

Butler,  N.  M.,  et  al.  Principles  of  Religious  Education.  Lectures 
delivered  under  the  Auspices  of  the  Sunday  School  Comiuission 
of  the  Diocese  of  New  York.  Pp.  xxH-292.  Longmans,  Green, 
&  Co.,  New  York,  1900. 

An  interesting  expression  of  the  new  interest  in  religious  education. 
See  especially  Lectures  I,  III,  Vil,  VIII. 

Carlyle,  Thomas.  Sartor  Resartus:  The  Life  and  Opinions  of  Herr 
Teufelsdroeckh.   Pp.  iv+228.  Chapman   &  Hall,  London,  1>93. 

This  work,  both  as  Carlyle's  spiritual  autobiography  and  as  a  reflective 
study  of  life  and  education,  contains  much  that  is  of  great  value  in  con- 
nection with  the  problems  of  moral  culture.  Book  II  deals  most 
directly  with  education. 

Carpenter,  Edward.  Affection  in  Education.  In  International  Jour- 
nal of  Ethics,  vol.  IX,  no.  4,  pp.  4S2-494.  Philadelphia,  July 
1899. 

An  excellent  article  showing  the  moral  value  of  healthy  school  friend- 
ships in  contrast  to  un'wase  repression  and  vicious  association.  Helpful 
in  connection  with  education  in  questions  of  sex. 

Carr,  J.  W,  Religious  and  Moral  Education  through  Public  and 
Private  Schools.  In  Proceedings  of  the  Religious  Education 
Association,  1903,  pp.   138-147. 

Carus,  Paul.  The  Moral  Education  of  Children.  In  Open  Court, 
vol.  XIII,  pp.  176-184.     Chicago,  March  1899. 

Deals  with  education  in  truth,  prudence  and  love  of  animals.  Frag- 
mentary but  sensible. 

Cash,  Miss  K.  G.      Children's    Sense    of  Truth.      In    Studies   in 

Education,  edited  by  Earl  Barnes,  vol.  II,  pp.  308-313. 

A  brief  inductive  study  with  conclusions  as  to  the  significance  and 
treatment  of  children's  lies. 

Chace,  Mrs.  E.  B.     Teaching  of  Morality  in  Schools.     In  Education, 

vol.  IV,  pp.   15-24.     Boston,  September  1883. 

Advocates  ethical  instruction  and  discussion  in  the  schools. 

Chamberlain,  Alex.  Francis.  The  Child:  A  Study  in  the  Evolu- 
tion of  Man.  Pp.  xii-t-498.  The  Walter  Scott  Publishing  Co., 
London,  1900. 

A  mass  of  facts  and  views  bearing  on  child  development,  collected 
from  the  evolutionary  point  of  view  and  loosely  organized.  Much  of 
the  book  has  an  indirect  value  for  moral  education. 

Chambers,  Will  Grant.    The  Evolution  of  Ideals.     In  Pedagogical 

Seminary,  vol.  X,  pp.  101-143.     Worcester,  March  1903. 

A  study  of  the  same  character  as  those  by  Miss  Darrah  and  Mr.  Barnes. 
Throws  interesting  light  on  the  ideals  of  children  at  different  stages  of 
development. 

Chandler,  Mary  G.  The  Elements  of  Character.  Pp.  234.  Crosby, 
Nichols  &  Co.,  Boston,  1854. 

An  interesting  old  book  of  essays  reminding  one  of  Emerson.  Empha- 
sizes the  unity  of  character  and  the  need  of  training  thought,  imagination 
and  affection  in  relation  to  each  other.  Evidently  radical  in  its  day  and 
still  sound  and  helpful. 


306  MORAL   EDUCATION 


Chenery,  Susan.     As  the  Twig  is  Bent:     A  Story  for  Mothers  and 

Teachers.     Pp.  164.     Houghton,   Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,    1901. 

A  good,  simple  discussion  of  the  concrete  handling  of  two  children  in 
the  home. 

Clark,  Kate  Upson.     Bringing  Up  Boys.     Pp.  227.     T.  Y.  Crowell 

&  Co.,  New  York,  1899. 

Practical  counsel  on  the  treatment  of  boys  in  the  home.  Sound  in  the 
main,  and  always  bright  and  suggestive. 

Clarke,  Edward  H.  Sex  in  Education;  or,  A  Fair  Chance  for  Girls. 
Pp.  181.     Osgood  &  Co.,  Boston,  1874. 

One  of  the  thoughtful  books  of  the  last  generation,  by  a  physician, 
urging  the  necessity  of  a  special  regimen  for  girls  if  coeducation  is  not 
to  harm  the  development  of  sane  womanhood. 

Clarke,  James  Freeman.  Self-Culture :  Physical,  Intellectual, 
Moral,  and  Spiritual.  A  Course  of  Lectures.  Pp.  446.  Os- 
good &  Co.,  Boston,  1880. 

Scattered  through  the  book  is  a  good  deal  of  helpful  suggestion  bear- 
ing on  moral  education. 

Coe,  George  A.  The  Spiritual  Life:  Studies  in  the  Science  of  Re- 
ligion.    Pp.  279.     Eaton  &  Mains,  New  York,  1900. 

One  of  the  recent  helpful  studies  of  the  religious  life,  undertaken  in  a 
scientific  spirit.  Indirectly  of  value  with  reference  to  reUgious  and 
moral  education  in  the  period  of  youthful  awakening. 

Coeducation  of    the  Sexes  in  the  United  States.     In    Report  of 

the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1900-1901,  vol. 

II,  pp.  1217-1315.     Government  Printing  Office,  Washington, 

1902. 

An  exhaustive  re\'iew  of  the  present  situation  in  the  United  States  in 
regard  to  coeducation,  with  citations  of  views  from  educational  authori- 
ties, American  and  foreign.     Contains  a  good  bibUography  of  the  subject. 

Coit,  Stanton.  Neighbourhood  Guilds,  an  Instrument  of  Social  Re- 
form.   Pp.  xH-150.      Swan  Sonnenschein  &  Co.,  London,  1892. 

Discussion  of  a  London  experiment  having  important  bearings  on 
moral  education. 

Combe,  Andrew.     The  Management  of  Infancy,  Physiological  and 

Moral,  Intended  Chiefly  for  the  Use  of  Parents.     Pp.  302.     D. 

Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1871. 

Excellent  in  its  day,  but  largely  superseded.  Pp.  239-276  deal  niore 
directly  with  moral  education. 

Comenius,  John  Amos.  The  Great  Didactic.  Translated  by  M.  W. 
Keatinge.     Pp.  468.     Adam  and  Charles  Black,  London,  1896. 

Interesting  not  only  as  the  basis  of  subsequent  educational  reform, 
but  because  much  of  it  is  still  of  value.  Imbued  with  a  religious  spirit 
and  containing  chapters  dealing  with  phases  of  moral  and  religious 
education. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  807 


School  of  Infancy;  An  Essay  on  the  Educa- 
tion of  Youth  During  the  First  Six  Years.  Translated  by 
Daniel  Benham;  revised  and  edited  wdlh  an  introduction  and 
notes  by  Will  S.  Monroe.  Pp.  xvi+99.  Heath's  Pedagogical 
Library,  D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.,  Boston,  lb96. 

See  especially  Chapter  IX  on  Moral  Training. 

Compayr6,  Gabriel.  Development  of  the  Child  in  Later  Infancy. 
Being  part  II  of  The  Intellectual  and  Moral  Development  of  the 
Child.  Translated  by  Mary  E.  Wilson.  Pp.  xxxi+300.  In- 
ternational Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York. 
1902. 

EUments  d' Instruction    Morale     et    Civique, 

(degre  elementaire) , — rccits,exemples,  preceptes,  parables,  fables. 

Pp.  vi+138.     Paul  Delaplane,  Paris,  1882  (?). 

One  of  the  French  text-books  for  the  ethical  instruction  of  children. 
Each  lesson  is  based  on  a  short  story  followed  by  reilections  and  ques- 
tions. 

The  Intellectual  and  Moral   Development   of 


the  Child,  part  I.  Translated  by  Mary  E.  Wilson.  Pp.  ix-|- 
298.  (For  part  II,  see  Compayr^,  Development  of  the  Child 
in  Later  Infancy.)  International  Education  Series,  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1896. 

An  indirect  bearing  on  moral  education. 

Lectures  on   Pedagogy.     Translated  by    W. 


H.  Payne.     Pp.  x+491.     D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.,  Boston,  1S90. 

See  especially  part  I,  chapter  X,  Moral  Education;  and  part  II,  chap- 
ters VIII,  Morals  and  Civic  Instruction;  XI,  Rewards  and  Punishments; 
and  XII,   Discipline  in  General. 

Psychology   Applied    to   Education.     Trans- 


lated by  W.   H.   Payne.     Pp.  lx+216.     Heath's  Pedagogical 
Library,  D.  C.  Heath  &Co.,  Boston,  1893. 

Chapters  XI-XIV,  in  di\'ision  C,  deal  with  moral  education. 

"C"    (Cox,    Mrs.    James    Farley).      Home     Thoughts.     Pp.     311. 
A.  S.  Barnes  &Co.,  New  York,  1901. 

Popular  and  sUght,  but  containing  many  helpful  suggestions  on  the 
home  training  of  children. 

Home  Thoughts,  Second  Series.   Pp.  xii-f 

340.  A.  S.  Barnes  &  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 
Crooker,  Joseph  Henry.  Religious  Freedom  in  American  Educa- 
tion. Pp.  ix4-216.  American  Unitarian  Association,  Boston, 
1903. 
Croswell,  J.  R.  Amusements  of  Worcester  School  Children.  In 
Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  VI,  pp.  314-371.  Worcester,  Sep- 
tember 1899. 

A  study  based  on  the  answers  of  2,000  children  to  a  questionnaire. 
Valuable  educational  applications,  esoecially  in  reference  to  the  adapta- 
tion of  play  to  different  periods  of  development.     Bibliography. 


308  MORAL   EDUCATION 

Currie,  James.      The  Principles  and  Practice  of  Common  School 

Education.     Pp.  xm+424.     Clarke  &  Co.,  Cincinnati,  18S4. 

A  fair  text-book,  but  with  little  hold  on  real  life.  Part  I,  chapters 
II  and  III,  deals  with  Moral  Education;  and  part  II,  chapter  II,  wiih 
Discipline. 

The  Principles  and  Practice  of  Early  and  Infant 

School  Education.     Pp.  xvi+285.     Kellogg  &  Co.,  New  York, 

1887. 

Good  sense,  but  rather  commonplace.  See  for  moral  education,  part 
I,  chapters  II,  III,  IV,  IX,  X;  part  III,  chapters  IV,  V. 

Curtis,  Henry  S.  Vacation  Schools,  Playgrounds,  and  Settlements. 
Advance  sheets  from  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion for  1903.  Pp.  38.  Government  Printing  Office,  Washing- 
ton, 1904. 

Excellent.  Touches  the  general  problem  of  play  in  moral  education, 
and  the  influence  of  the  social  atmosphere. 

Daniels,  Arthur  H.  The  New  Life:  A  Study  of  Regeneration.  In 
American  Journal  of  Psychology,  vol.  VI,  pp.  61-106,  Wor- 
cester, October  1893. 

One  of  the  many  studies  of  adolescence  inspired  by  President  Hall. 
Good  but  superseded  by  President  Hall's  recent  woi-k.  Shows  connec- 
tion of  spiritual  and  physical  changes  in  the  period. 

Darrah,  Estelle  M.  (Mrs.  C.  B.  Dyke)  Children's  Attitude 
toward  Law.  In  Studies  in  Education,  edited  by  Earl  Barnes, 
vol.  I,  pp.  213-216;  pp.  254-258. 

Two  brief  inductive  studies,  with  an  important  bearing  on  discipline. 

A  Study  of  Children's    Ideals.      In   Popular 

Science  Monthly,  vol.  LIl'l,  pp.  88-98.  New  York,  May  1898. 
One  of  the  earliest  statistical  studies  in  this  fertile  field. 

Davidson,  Thomas.  The  Education  of  the  Greek  People;  and  its 
Influence  on  Civilization.  Pp.  xiv+229.  International  Edu- 
cation Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1894. 

The  first  chapter  on  "Nature  and  Education  "  and  the  summing  up  of 
the  last  chapter  are  especially  full  of  stimulating  conceptions,  presenting 
an  original  and  interesting  philosophy  of  education. 

— A    History  of  Education.     Pp.  292.     Charles 

Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1900. 

Chapter  I,  Introductory,  and  division  .HI,  chapter  IV,  The  Outlook* 
have  a  general  bearing  on  moral  education. 


The   Ideal    Training   of  the  American   Girl. 

In  Forum,  vol.  XXV,  pp.  471-480.     New  York,  June  1898. 

An  admirable  article,  especially  strong  in  advocating  a  truer  spirit  of 
democracy  in  our  higher  education. 

Davies,  Henry.      The  New  Psychology  and   the  Moral  Training  of 

Children.     In  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  vol.  X,  no.  4, 

pp.  493-503.     Philadelphia,  Jaiy  1900. 

An  attempt  at  a  review  and  criticisTi  of  the  relation  of   the  new  psy- 
chology to  moral  education,     Suggeotive  but  incomplete  in  view. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  309 


Dawson,  George  E.  Children's  Interest  in  the  Bible.  In  Peda- 
gogical Seminary,  vol.  VII,  pp.  151-178.     Worcester,  1900. 

A  study  appljdng  to  children's  interest  in  the  Bible  the  same  methods 
already  employed  by  other  inductive  investigators  of  children's  interests. 
Conclusions  illuminating  with  reference  to  the  curriculum  of  the  Sunday 
school  and  of  reUgious  education  generally. 

—  A  Study  in  Youthful  Degeneracy.  In  Peda- 
gogical Seminary,  vol.  IV,  pp.  221-258.  Worcester,  December 
1896. 

A  study  of  60  '  juvenile  delinquents,'  classifying  their  characteristics 
and  studying  the  causes  of  their  crimes.  Contains  a  few  conclusions  of 
value  for  the  larger  problem  of  moral  education  in  society. 

Day,  Thomas.     The  History  of  Sandford  and  Merton.     Pp.  xii  +  388. 

Ward,  Lock,  Bowden,  &  Co.,  London.     No  date. 

A  typical  18th  Century  book  for  children,  "replete  with  information, 
of  unimpeachable  moraUty,"  (from  Preliimnary  Sketch  of  the  Life  of 
Thomas  Day).     Really  a  charming  book  in  spite  of  its  morality. 

Defoe,  Daniel.  The  Family  Instructor,  in  Five  Paris,  and  a 
Variety  of  Cases  on  the  Necessity  of  Setting  Proper  Examples 
to  Children  and  Servants.  T\s'o  vols.,  pp.  x  +  393  and  xi  +  403. 
Talboys,  Oxford,  1841. 

Quaint  old  volumes  of  dialogue  between  different  members  of  a  family 
in  which  the  father  and  mother  seek  suddenly  to  reform  the  children. 
Deeply  pious  in  intention,  but  written  with  racy  vigor  of  style.  Chief 
interest  historical. 

De  Garmo,  Charles.  Ethical  Training  in  the  Public  Schooh.  In 
Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science, 
vol.  II,  pp.  577-599.     Philadelphia,  1892. 

An  excellent,  thoughtful  contribution.  Considers  the  moral  effect 
of  life  under  institutional  forms,  and  the  value  of  history,  Uterature  and 
illustrations  from  practical  life  in  enforcing  ethical  teaching. 

Social  Aspects    of  Moral    Education.      In 


Third  Year   Book  of   National    Herbart   Society,  pp.   35-57. 
University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago,  1897. 

Considers  the  social  aim  in  education,  and  opportunities  in  the  school, 
through  its  organization  and  its  studies,  to  further  that  aim. 

Dewey,  John.      The  Chaos  in  Moral  Training.     In  Popular  Sci- 
ence Monthly,  vol.  XLV,  pp.  433-443.    New  York,  August  1894. 
A  brief  article  showing  the  chaos  in  the  popular  mind  with  reference 
to  the  sanctions  of  good  conduct. 

Ethical      Principles     Underhjing     Education.     In 


Third  Year  Book  of  National  Herbart  Society,  pp.  7-34.     Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago,  1897. 

An  admirable  condensed  article  dealing  with  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  moral  education,  urging  especially  reform  in  the  direction  of 
preparing  for  social  Ufe  by  helping  the  child  to  pracUse  its  ftctivitxes. 


310  MORAL   EDUCATION 


The    School    and    Society.     Supplemented    by    a 

statement   of   the    (Chicago)    University   Elementary   School. 
Pp.  129.     University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago,  1900. 

Contains  much  helpful  suggestion  bearing  on  moral  education  through 
activity. 

» 
Dilthey,  Karl.      Moralisches    Gdngelband    fi'ir    Kinder.     Dialogen 
fur  Kinder.     Pp.  230.     Langbein  &  Kluger,  Rudolstadt,  1799. 
Pleasant  and  bright  moral  dialogues  between  father  and  children. 

Dismorr,  Blanche.  Ought  Children  to  be  Paid  for  Domestic  Ser- 
vices? In  Studies  in  Education,  edited  by  Earl  Barnes,  vol.  II, 
pp.  62-70. 

Dodge,  M.  A.     (See  Hamilton,  Gail.) 

Dole,  Charles  F.    The  American  Citizen.    Pp.  xvi  +  326  +  42.    D.  C. 

Heath  &Co.,  Boston,  1894. 

For  children  and  young  people.  Portions  of  the  book  deal  with 
social  and  economic  duties. 

The  Young  Citizen.     Pp.  xv+194.    D.  C.  Heath 

&Co.,  Boston,  1899. 

An  excellent  little  book,  brightly  written,  giving  a  simple  statement  of 
social  and  public  morals  with  reference  to  the  duties  and  opportunities 
of  service  children  have.  Well  illustrated,  with  notes  under  the  illustra- 
tions making  them  an  instructive  part  of  the  work. 


Depp,  Katherine    Elizabeth.     The    Place    of    Industries  in   Ele- 

^  mentary   Education.    Pp.    208.     University   of   Chicago  Press, 

Chicago,  1903. 

Considers  comparatively  the  development  of  the  child  and  the  race 
in  regard  to  industrial  activities,  with  important  appUcations  to  educa- 
tion. 

Du  Bois,    Patterson.     Beckonings  from  Little  Hands.     Pp.  xiii-f- 

166.     John  D.  Wattles  &  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1895. 

Exquisite,  simple  interpretation  of  childhood  written  with  delicate 
sensitiveness  to  the  tragedies  and  joys  of  children.  Concrete  incidents 
from  a  father's  experience. 

*-^      — The  Natural  Way  in  Moral  Training.     Pp. 

328.     The  Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  Chicago,  (copyright)  1903. 

Deals  with  the  application  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  field  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  bodily  growth  through  atmosphere,  light,  food  and  exercise. 
Urges  a  more  natural  method  in  moral  and  religious  education. 

Dutton,  Samuel  T.  School  Management.  Practical  Suggestions 
concerning  the  Conduct  and  Life  of  the  School.  Pp.  xv+278. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,   1903. 

—    Social  Phases  of  Education  in  the  School  and  the 


Home.    Pp.  ix  +  259.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1900. 
General  papers,  many  of  them  touching  phases  of  moral  education. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  311 

Ebers,  Georg.     The  Story  of  My  Life  from  Childhood  to  Manhood 
Translated  by  Mar}^  J.  Safford.     Pp.   viii  +  3S2.     D.  Appleton 
&  Co.,  New  York,  1S93. 

Especially  interesting  because  Ebers's  early  education  was  in  the 
Froebel  Institute,  at  Keilhau.  Thus  one  of  the  best  available  opportu- 
nities for  studying  Froebel's  ideas  in  practice. 

Eby,  F.  The  Reconstruction  of  the  Kindergarten.  In  Pedagogical 
Seminary,  vol.  VII,  pp.  229-286.     Worcester,  July  1900. 

A  suggestive  study  of  the  kindergarten  from  the  point  of  view  of 
genetic  psychology. 

Edgeworth,  Maria,  and  Edgeworth,  Richard  Lovell.  Practical 
Education.  Tu'o  volumes  in  one..  Pp.  332  and  312.  T.  B. 
Wait  &  Sons,  Boston,  1815. 

Excellent  common  sense,  often  pungently  stated.  "While  largely 
superseded,  still  useful  through  the  vigor  with  which  ideas  are  expressed 
and  illustrated. 

Egidy,  M.  von.  Gedanken  ilher  Erziehung  In  Sanimlung  pa- 
dagogische  Vortrage,  vol.  X,  no.  6,  pp.  127 — 147.  Address  in 
Berlin  Lehrverein,  21  May,  1897. 

A  fine,  popular  address,  urging  the  substitution  of  free  for  compelled 
action  in  education,  as  peace  and  its  ideals  are  substituted  for  war. 

Eliot,  Charles  W.  Educational  Reform.  Essays  and  Addresses. 
Pp.  ix+418.     The  Century  Co.,  Xew  York,  1898. 

Represents  the  various  phases  of  President  Eliot's  leadership  in  educa- 
tion. See  especially  chapter  XVIII,  The  Function  of  Education  in 
Democratic  Society. 

—    More  Money  for  the  Public  Schools.     Pp.  193 

Doubleday,  Page  &  Co.,  New  York,  1903. 

Three  admirable  addresses  dealing  respectively  with  the  failure  of  Ameri- 
can public  education,  advances  in  recent  years,  and  the  next  desirable 
steps. 

Ellis,  A.  Caswell.      Suggestions    for  a  Philosophy    of    Education. 

In  Pedagogical  Seminary,   vol.    V,  pp.  159 — 201.     Worcester, 

October  1897. 

An  attempt  to  gather  up  the  results  of  the  child  study  movement 
and  apply  these  to  the  general  problem  of  education. 

—     Sunday  School  Work  and  Bible  Study  in  the  Light 

of  Modern  Pedagogy.      In  Pedagogical  Seminarv,  vol.  Ill,  pp. 

363—412.     Worcester,  June  1896. 

Contains  a  suggestive  outline  of  the  child's  moral  and  religious  unfold- 
ing. Advocates  allowing  the  lower  characteristics  j:o  develop  at  periods 
of  growth  with  the  idea  that  so  they  will  pass  off.  Sketch  of  the  Sunday 
school.     Bibliography. 

—    and  Hall,  G.  Stanley.     A  Study  of  Dolls.     In 

Pedagogical  Seminary,    vol.    IV,   pp.    129—175.      Worcester, 

December  1896. 

Based  on  answers  to  a  wndely  circulated  questionnaire.  Some  illumi- 
nating pedagogical  conclusions.  Certain  of  these  quite  contradict  the 
traditional  notions  regarding  the  meaning  of  play  with  -dolls.  Advo- 
cates much  wider  use  and  more  careful  direction  of  doll  play  by  parents 
find  teachers. 


312  MORAL   EDUCATION 

.  f      Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.      Education.     In     Lectures     and     Bio- 
t  graphical  Sketches,   vol.   X    of    Emerson's    complete    works. 

Riverside  edition,    pp.  123 — 156.      Houghton,  Mifflin  &    Co., 
Boston,  (copyright)  1883. 

Everett,  C.  C.     Ethics  for  Young  People.     Pp.  iv-|-185.     Ginn  & 

Co.,  Boston,  1891. 

Didactic  lessons  gi%'ing  an  analysis  of  duties,  with  general  illustrations 
and  kindly  moralizing. 

Farrar,  F.  W.,  et  al.      The  Bible  and  the  Child.      Pp.    vii  +  171. 

The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1896. 

A  discussion,  by  various  religious  leaders,  of  the  effect  of  the  'Higher 
Criticism'  on  teaching  the  Bible  to  children. 

Fitch,  Joshua  G.     Educational  Aims  and  Methods.     Pp.  xii+448. 

University  Press,  Cambridge  (Eng.),  1900. 

General  lectures.     See  chapter  III,  The  Evolution  of  Character,  and 
chapter  XIII.  The  Sunday  School  of  the  Future. 

—     Thomas    and    Matthew    Arnold     and     Their 


Influence  on  Enqlish  Education.     Pp.  ix  +  277.    The  Great  Edu- 
cators Series,  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1899. 

Chapter  V,  pp.  75-109,  deals  with  Thomas  Arnold's  methods  of  gov- 
ernment  and   discipUne. 

Forbush,  William  Byron.     The   Boy  Problem,  A  Study  in  Social 

Pedagogy.     Pp.  206.     The  Pilgrim  Press,  Boston,  1901. 

An  enthusiastic  book  embodying  the  results  of  practical  experience  in 
religious  work  with  young  boys.     Centres  on  plans  for  boys'  clubs. 

The    Social    Pedagogy    of   Boyhood.      In 

Pedagogical  Seminary,   vol.    VII,  pp.  307 — 346.      Worcester, 
October  1900. 

An  article  anticipating  the  author's  book.  Reviews  applications  of 
genetic  psychology  to  the  'Boy  Problem,'  and  suggests  practical  methods 
and  expedients  in  deaUng  with  boys. 

Fouillee,  Alfred.  Education  from  a  National  Standpoint.  Trans- 
lated and  edited  by  W.  J.  Greenstreet.  Pp.  xvi  +  332.  Inter- 
national Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York, 
1892. 

A  corrective  to  hasty  generalizations  from  science  and  evolution,  con- 
taining a  strong  argument  against  merely  utilitarian  education  in  favor 
of  moral  culture.  While  somewhat  of  a  special  plea,  the  book  is  modern 
and  suggestive  with  reference  to  the  whole  problem  of  moral  education. 

Les  Jeunes  Criminels.    L'Ecole  et  la  Presse.     In 

Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  vol.  139,  pp.  417 — 449.     Paris,  Jan- 
uary 15,  1897. 

A  thoughtful  article  dwelling  on  the  criminal  suggestion  in_  licentious 
literature  as  a  chief  cause  of  the  increase  of  crime  among  children  and 
youth.     Emphasizes  moral  education  as  the  main  corrective. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  313 

Freai,  Cart)line.  Class  Punishment.  In  Studies  in  Education, 
edited  by  Earl  Barnes,  vol.  I,  pp.  332—337. 

A  brief  inductive  study  of  the  attitudetof  children  toward  punishing  a 
class  as  a  whole.     Some  applications  to  the  problem  of  discipline. 

-French,  C.  W.      The  Problem  of  School  Government.      In  School 

Review,  April  8,  1900,  pp.  201—212.     University  of  Chicago 

Press,  Chicago,  1900. 

An  excellent   article — one   of  the   few   studies   recognizing   that   the  ^^ 
problem  of  school  government  is  one  of  moral  education.     ^States  that  w^ 
in  America  school  government  should  be  American,  social,  and  moral  in 
effect  upon  character. 

Froebel,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  August.  Education  hy  Development. 
The  Second  Part  of  the  Pedagogics  of  the  Kindergaritn. 
Translated  by  Josephine  Jarvis.  Pp.  xxvi  +  347.  Interna- 
tional Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1899. 

More  miscellaneous  than  the  essays  in  the  Pedagogics  of  the  Kinder- 
garten, but  illuminating  for  Froebel's  principles,  returning  again  and 
again  to  education  through  eelf-acti\'ity. 

The    Education    of   Man. 


Translated   by    W.    N.    Hailmann.     Pp.  xxv4-332.     Interna- 
tional Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1892. 

The  central  work  with  reference  to  Froebel's  philosophy  which  focuses 
always  on  moral  education. 

Letters  on  the  Kindergarten. 


Translated  and  edited  by  Emilie  Michaelis  and  H.  K.  Moore. 

Pp.  xi  +  331.     Swan  Sonnenschein  &  Co.,  London,  1891. 

Miscellaneous  letters  selected  by  Mme.  Froebel  and  H.  Poesche,  the 
German  editor,  as  throwing  light  on  the  kindergarten  and  Froebel's 
philosophy  in  relation  to  it. 

The  Mottoes  and  Commen- 


taries of  Froebel's  Mother  Play.  Translated  by  Henrietta  R. 
Eliot  and  Susan  E.  Blow,  with  an  introduction  treating  of 
the  philosophy  of  Froebel  by  Susan  E.  Blow.  Pp.  xxii  +  31n. 
International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  \ork, 
1895. 

Pedagogics  of  the  Kinder- 


garten. Translated  by  Josephine  Jarvis.  Pp.  xxxvii  +  337 
-l-xiii.  International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
New  York,  1899. 

Contains  fifteen  of  Froebel's  essays  dealing  with  play  and  the  educa- 
tional meaning  of  the  "Gifts"  and  the  plays  of  children. 

Gardener,  Helen  H.     Facts  and  Fictions  of  Life.    Pp.  269.     C.  H. 
Kerr  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1893. 

Contains  a  great  deal  on  the  relation  of  heredity  to  morality.  Advo- 
cates teaching  children  and  young  people  the  truth  about  life  and  people. 
Much  of  the  book  has  an  indirect  bearing  on  moral  education. 


314  MORAL   EDUCATION 

Garlick,  A.  H.  A  New  Manual  of  Method.  Pp.  xx  +  378.  Long- 
mans, Green,  &  Co.,  New  York,  1897. 

Text-book.     See  chapters  I,  School  Economy;  and  II,  Discipline. 

Garrison,  Wendell  P.     Parables  for  School  and  Home.     Pp.  xv4- 
214.     Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  New  York,  1897. 
Material  of  some  value  for  ethical  instruction. 

Giles,    Arthur    E.     Moral    Pathology.       Pp.    viii  +  179.      Charles 

Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1895. 

A  good  subject  and  idea,  poorly  developed.  Some  helpful  suggestions 
under  "Moral  Hygiene."  Rather  slight  and  forced  comparisons  in  detail 
between  physical  and  moral  medicine. 

Gilman,  Charlotte  Perkins  (Stetson).     Concerning    Children.     Pp. 

298.     Small,  Maynard  &  Co.,  Boston,  1900. 

Fresh  and  suggestive  but  one-sided.  Sound  counsel  in  reaction 
against  conventional  education  in  the  home.  The  dogma  of  heredity  is 
overworked  and  questionable  inferences  are  drawn  from  'science.' 
Some  of  the  cures  suggested  indicate  limited  experience  with  children. 

Gilman,  Nicholas  Paine,  and  Jackson,  Edward  Payson.  Cori- 
duct  as  a  Fine  Art.  Contsi'mmg  The  Laws  of  Daily  Conduct,  pp. 
vi  +  149,  by  N.  P.  Gilman;  and  Character  Building,  pp.  viiH- 
230,  by  E.  P.  Jackson.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1891. 

Two  essays  receiving  the  prize  offered  by  the  American  Secular  Union 
for  the  best  treatise  aiding  teachers  to  instruct  children  and  youth  in 
moraUty  without  inculcating  religion.  The  first  treatise  gives  an 
analysis  and  classification  of  ordinary  ethical  conceptions;  the  second 
consists  of  rather  sprightly  didactic  dialogue  between  Dr.  Dix  and  his 
pupils. 

Gilson,  Roy  Rolfe.  In  the  Morning  Glow.  Short  Stories.  Pp. 
187.     Harper  &  Brothers.,  New  York,  1902. 

Exquisite  interpretation  of  childhood;  belongs  to  the  best  modern 
artistic  work  revealing   child  Ufe  sympathetically  for  an  adult  audience. 

Girardey,  Ferreol.  Popular  Instructions  to  Parents  on  the  Bring- 
ing Up  of  Children.  Pp.  202.  Benziger  Bros.,  New  York, 
1897. 

An  excellent,  simple  Roman  Catholi*  manual  for  parents;  restfuUy 
certain  in  its  theses.  Emphasizes  religious  training  and  the  sending  of 
children  to  Roman  Cathohc  schools. 

Goddard,  Henry  H.     Negative  Ideals.     In  Studies  in  Education, 

edited  by  Earl  Barnes,  vol.  II,  pp.  392—398. 

Complementary  to  the  numerous  positive  studies  in  children's  ideals: 
seeks  to  discover  the  ethical  disUkes  of  children.  Pedagogical  appli- 
cations. 

Goethe,  J.  W.  von.     Autobiography  and  Annals.     Translated  by 

John    Oxenford,   et  al.      Trvo  vols.,  pp.    viii  +  520   and    501. 

George  Bell  &  Sons,  London,  1891. 

The  earlier  portions  of  the  Autobiography  are  full  of  illuminating 
material  and  frequent  wise  thought  on  the  problem  of  moral  education. 
The.  whole  work  is  one  of  the  most  instructive  in  the  entire  field  of  per- 
sonal autobiography. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  315 

—  —  Wilhehn  Meister's  Apprenticeship  and  Trav- 
els. Translated  by  Thomas  Carlyle.  Two  vols.,  pp.  xxiii  + 
420  and  469.  Critical  introduction  by  Edward  Dowden. 
Edited  with  notes  by  Clement  King  Shorter.  Masterpieces 
of  Foreign  Authors  Series,  A.  C.  McCiurg&  Co.,  Chicago,  1890. 

Of  value  not  only  as  containing  Goethe's  direct  treatise  on  education, 
but  because  the  work  is  filled  with  illuminating  wisdom  in  regard  to  all 
aspects  of  culture  and  personal  life. 

Gorst,  Harold  E.  The  Curse  of  Education.  Pp.  vi-fl44.  G. 
Richards,  London,  1901. 

Very  reactionary,  regarding  all  educational  systems  in  operation  at 
present  as  worse  than  useless,  because  cramming  with  information  and 
destroying  power  to  think.     One-sided  but  suggestive  criticism. 

Grahame,  Kenneth.    Dream  Days.  Pp.  228.   John  Lane,  New  York, 

1898. 

Excellent  interpretation  of  child  life  for  adults.  Value  in  gi\ing 
sympathy  with  the  spirit  and  attitude  of  childhood.  The  Dragon  Story 
is  a  good  example  of  what  not  to  tell  children,  since  it  deals  with  legend- 
ary material  in  a  way  that  seems  bright  to  the  adult  but  irreverent  to 
the  child. 

The  Golden  Age.     Pp.  vii-|-241.     John  Lane, 

New  York,  1898. 

Delightful  interpretative  fiction  showing  the  child's  dream-world. 
Possibly  somewhat  overdrawn  as  compared  -nith  every-day  children, 
but  helpful  in  awakening  sympathy  for  the  child's  point  of  view. 

Greard,  Oct.     Education  et  Instruction.     Enseignement  Secondaire. 
Two  vols.,  pp.  350  and  339.     Hachette  et  Cie.     Paris,  1889. 
See    especially   vol.    II,    pp.    163-235,   L'Esprit    de    Discipline    dans 
rifiducation;     and     pp.     237-272,   L'Education   Morale  et   I'^ducation 
Physique  dans  les  Lyc^es. 

Green,  Sanford   M.     Crime:   Its   Nature,    Causes,  Treatment,  and 

Prevention.     Pp.   346.     The  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co.,  Philadelphia, 

1889. 

An  excellent  modern  \aew  by  a  life-long  judge  in  Michigan.  Advo- 
cates education  as  treatment  and  prevention  of  crime  and  argues  against 
all  retributive  punishment. 

Groos,  Karl.      The  Play  of  Man.     Translated  with  the  author's 
^  cooperation  bv  Elizabeth  L.  Baldwin.  Pp.  ix-f  412.  D.  Appleton 

&  Co.,  New  York,  1901. 

A  thorough,  scientific  study.  Play  exhaustively  described  and  classi- 
fied. Especial  value  for  moral  education  in  the  pedagogical  inferences, 
pp.  398-406. 

Gulick,  Luther.  Psychological,  Pedagogical  and  Religious  Aspects 
of  Group  Games.  In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  VI,  pp.  135- 
151.     Worcester,  March  1899. 

Urges  that  games  of  Anglo-Saxon  boys  are  forceful,  objective,  involve 
organization  and  hero-worship,  and  that  religion  must  utiliie  these 
tendencies  in  its  educational  activities. 


1/ 


316  MORAL   EDUCATION 


Guyau,  J.  M.     Education  and  Heredity.     Translated  from  second 

edition  by  W.  J.  Greenstreet,  with  an   introduction  by  G.  F. 

Stout.     Pp.   xxiv  +  306.     The    Contemporary    Science   Series. 

The  Walter  Scott  Pub.  Co.,  London,  1891. 

Full  of  suggestions  bearing  on  moral  education.  Contains  an  ex- 
cellent discussion  of  punishment  from  the  medico-scientific  point  of  view 
and  considers  the  use  of  suggestion  in  dealing  with  children. 

H.  H.   (pseudon5^m  of  Jackson,  Helen  Hunt.)    Bits  of  Talk  about 

Home  Matters.    Pp.  viii  +  239.    Roberts  Brothers,  Boston,  1873. 

Good  counsel,  much  of  it  bearing  on  treatment  of  children  within  the 
home.     Fine  in  sentiment. 

Hailmann,  W.  N.      Moral  Results  in  School  Training.     In  Educa- 
tion, vol.  4,  pp.  415-426.     Boston,  March  1884. 

An  excellent  article,  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  best  in  the  '  new 
education,'  and  broad  in  suggestions  on  the  whole  field  of  moral 
culture.  Opposed  to  the  report  of  the  Committee  to  the  National 
Council  of  Education  in  1883  (see  W.  A.  Mowry).  Advocates  intel- 
lectual ethical  instruction. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett.     How  I  loas  Educated.     In  Forum,  vol.  I, 

pp.  55-63.    New  York,  March  1886. 

L/  Following  the  article  by  Dr.  Hale  are  some  ten  others,  running  through 

vols.  I  and  II  of  the  Forum,  on  the  same  subject  by  prominent  leaders 
in  education.  The  series  is  especially  illuminating  in  showing  the  value 
of  non-scholastic  influences  in  molding  character. 

A   New  England  Boyhood,  and  Other  Bits 


1/ 


of    Autobiography.      Pp.    xxvi  +  500.     Little,    Brown,  &    Co., 
Boston,  1900. 

Hall,  Frank  O.  Religion  in  the  Home.  In  Proceedings  of  the 
Seventh  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Congress  of  Religion,  held  at 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  June— July,  1901,  pp.  124-142,  including 
discussion  by  W.  C.  Gannett  and  L.  G.  Janes.  Unity  Publish- 
ing Co.,  Chicago.     No  date. 

Hall,  G.  Stanley.     Adolescence.     Its    Psychology  and  its  Relation 

to   Physiology,   Anthropology ,   Sociology,   Sex^'  Crime,   Religion 

and  Education.      Two    vols.,    pp.    xxi-|-589  and  vi  +  784.  D. 

Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1904. 

A  masterpiece.  Outrivals  any  previous  work  in  massing  facts  bearing 
on  all  aspects  of  genetic  development.  Great,  as  all  President  Hall's 
work,  not  only  in  the  accumulation  of  material,  but  in  a  prodigal  wealth 
of  ideas  stimulating  to  other  minds.  Valuable  for  nearly  all  aspects  of 
moral  education,  but  especially  for  education  in  religion  and  instruction 
in  the  intimate  problems  of  human  life. 

-    — Moral    Education     and      Will-training.       In 

Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  II,  pp.  72-89.      Worcester,  1892. 

Reprinted  from  the  Princeton  Review,  New  Series,  vol.  X,  pp.  306- 
325,  November  1882.  where  the  same  article  appears  under  the  title. 
The  Education  of  the  Will.  A  strong  article  dealing  with  some 
fundamentals  of  moral  education. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  317 


The  Moral  and  Religious  Training  of  Children 
and  Adolescents.     In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  I,  pp   19l>-210 
Worcester,  1S91. 

A  part  of  the  same  article  appears  in  earlier  form  in  the  Princeton 
Review,  New  Series,  vol.  IX,  pp.  26-48,  January  1882.  A  fragmentary 
but  illuminating  study  expressing  certain  of  the  ideas  subsequently 
worked  out  in  more  complete  form  in  President  Hall's  Adolescence. 

Some  Fundamental  Principles  of  Sunday  School 


and   Bible    Teaching.      In   Pedagogical   Seminary,    vol.  VIII, 
pp.  439-468.     Worcester,    December  1901. 

An  appUcation  of  the  results  of  modern  psychology  to  the  problem  of 
the  curriculum  and  teaching  in  the  Sunday  school,  and  an  appeal  for 
reform  in  harmony  with  these  principles.     Excellent. 

-    —     Some  Social  Aspects  of  Education.     In  Pedagog- 
ical Seminary,  vol.  IX,  pp.  81-91.     Worcester,  March  1902. 

An  address  given  before  the  Harvard  Teachers'  Union.  Shows  the 
existing  social  implications  of  the  school  and  advocates  the  conscious 
extension  of  its  possibilities  in  the  same  directions. 

.    —    7^/jg  Story  of  a  Sand  Pile.     In  Scribner's  Maga- 
zine, vol.  Ill,  pp.  690-696.     New  York,  June  1888. 

A  descriptive  study  in  the  educational  value  of  play  activities. 


—    A  Study   of   Fears.     In  American  Journal  of 

Psychology,  vol.  VIII,  pp.  147-249.     Worcester,  January  1897. 

A  suggestive  inductive  study  with  some  conclusions  as  to  the  place  of 
fear  in   education. 

Hamerton,  Philip  Gilbert.     The  Intellectual  Life.     Pp.  xix-|-4o5. 

Roberts  Brothers,  Boston,  1891. 

See  part  II,  The  Moral  Basis,  and  part  III,  Of  Education. 

Hamilton,  Gail.      (Pseudonym  of  M.  A.  Dodge.)     Nursery  Noon- 
ings.    Pp.  310.     Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York,  1875. 

Miscellaneous  counsel  on  the  treatment  of  children.  Pleasant  and 
helpful,  taking  throughout  the  child's  point  of  \dew. 

Hanus,  Paul  H.     Educational  Aims  and  Educational  Values.     Pp. 
vii+211.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1899. 

"A  progressive  attempt  ...  to  disentangle  from  the  contemporary 
educational  confusion,  in  both  theory  and  practice,  our  educational  aims, 
and  to  examine  these  aims  in  the  light  of  present  and  future  needs." 
— Preface. 

—    A  Modern  School.     Pp.  x+306.     The  Macmillan 

Co.,  New  York,  1904. 

Loosely  connected  essays,  several  bearing  in  a  general  way  on  moral 
education.  See  especially  chapters  I,  A  Modern  School;  V,  The  School 
and  the  Home;  VI.  Our  Faith  in  Education. 

Harris,  W.  T.     Moral  Education  in  the  Common  Schools.     In  Jour- 
nal of  Social  Science,  no.  18,  pp.    122-134.     New  York,  1884. 

Address  before  the  American  Social  Science  Association,  September  4. 
1883.  Deals  with  the  opportunities  of  the  pubHc  school  to  train  childrea 
in  the  three  types  of  virtue,  "mechanical,  social,  celestial." 


318  MORAL   EDUCATION 


Moral  Education    in  the  Public   Schools.     Pp.  20. 


E.  Steiger,  New  York,  1877. 

Reprinted  from  Dr.  Harris's  Report  for  1871,  as  Superintendent  of  St. 
Louis  public  schools.  Discusses  the  range  of  moral  training  possible  in 
public  schools  and  advocates  our  present  system  of  secular  education. 

— The  Philosophy  of  Crime  and  Punishment.     Pp.  20. 

Publisher?     1890? 

An  address  read  before  the  National  Prison  Association  of  the  United 
States,  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  September,  1890.  Bearing  on  the  relation 
of  education  to  crime  and  on  the  moral  significance  of  disciphne  in  home 
and  school. 

— Psychologic  Foundations  of  Education — an  Attempt 

to  Show  the  Genesis  of  the  Higher  Faculties  of  the  Mind.  Pp. 
xxxv+400.  International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.,  New  York,  1898. 

Has  only  a  general  reference  to  the  problem  of  moral  education. 

—     The  Relation  of  School  Discipline  to  Moral  Educa- 


tion. In  Third  Year  Book  of  the  National  Herbart  Society, 
j  pp.  58-72.  Prepared  for  discussion  at  the  Milwaukee  meet- 
''        ing  of  the  National  Educational  Association,  1897.    University 

of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago  1897. 

The  same  article  is  reprinted  in  the  New  York  Teachers'  Monographs, 
Class  Management  Number,  pp.  1-10,  New  York,  March  1900.  An 
excellent  article,  dealing  with  the  phases  of  moral  training  possible 
through  the  organization  and  discipline  9f  the  school,  and  representing 
Dr.  Harris's  latest  views  in  this  connection. 

Harrison,  Elizabeth.     Some  Silent  Teachers.    Pp.  187.     The  Sigma 

Publishing  Company,  Chicago,  (copyright)  1904. 

Deals  with  the  influence  and  meaning  of  shop-windows,  architectiire, 
color  and  hterature. 

A  Study  of  Child-Nature  from  the  Kinder- 
garten Standpoint.  Pp.  207.  Chicago  Kindergarten  College, 
Chicago,' 1895. 

A  good  modern  expression  of  Froebel's  influence,  in  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  the  new  education.  Emphasizes  kindness,  sympathy  and 
appreciation  of  the  indix-idual  child,  with  positive  methods  of  moral 
culture. 

Harrison,  Frederic,  and  Adler,    Felix.     The    Relation    of  Ethical 

Culture  to  Religion  and  Philosophy.     In  International  Journal 

of  Ethics,  vol.  IV,  no.  3,  pp.  335-347.     Philadelphia,  April  1894. 

An  interesting  discussion:  Mr.  Harrison  advocating,  from  the  posi- 
tivist  point  of  \-iew,  the  teaching  of  religion  and  philosophy;  Professor 
Adler  holding  that  ethics  has  its  own  sanctions,  and  that  the  separation 
of  ethics  from  religion  may  be  complete. 

Haskell,  Ellen  M.  Imitation  in  Children.  In  Pedagogical  Sem- 
inary, vol.  Ill,  pp.  30-47.     Worcester,  October  1894. 

^A  mass  of  unclassified  instances  with  comments.     Makes  for  sympathy 
with  child  life  and  contains  a  strong  plea  for  freedom  for  the  child. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  810 

Henry,  Alice.      The   Special  Moral  Training  of  Girls.     In  Inter-    ">^ 
national  Journal  of  Ethics,  vol.  XIV,  pp.  1-15.     Philadelphia 
October  1903. 

A  brief  article  written  as  a  companion  study  to  that  by  Canon  Lyttle- 
ton  on  "  The  Instruction  of  the  Young  in  Sexual  Knowledge." 

Henderson,  C.  Hanford.  Education  and  the  Larger  Life.  Pp. 
386.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1902. 

In  radical  reaction  against  present  tendencies  in  education.  Opti- 
mistic and  full  of  faith  in  the  higher  human  life.  While  regarding  life 
rather  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  segregated  few,  without  recognizing 
suflBciently  the  inexorable  necessities  under  which  the  many  struggle, 
the  book  is  sane  in  spirit  and  contains  much  helpful  suggestion  with 
reference  to  educational  reform. 

Herbart,  Johann  Friedrich.  Herhart^s  A  B  C  of  Sense-Percep- 
tion and  Minor  Pedagogical  Works.  Translated,  with  intro- 
duction, notes,  and  commentar\-,  by  Wm.  J.  Eckoff.  Pp.  xxxi 
+288.  International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
New  York,  1896. 

Little  direct  bearing  on  moral  education  except  in  certain  of  the  minor 
writings;  see  especially  that  on  The  Esthetic  Revelation  of  the  Universe. 

Letters  and  Lectures  on  Education. 


.    .    .   Translated   from   the  German   .    .    .   by  H.  M.  and  E. 

Felkin  and  with  a  preface  by   O.   Browning.     Pp.   xvi4-285. 

C.  W.  Bardeen,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  1898. 

An  excellent  introduction  to  Herbart's  general  educational  philosophy, 
with  a  wealth  of  wise  observations  on  the  control  and  guidance  of  chil- 
dren. 

Outlines    of    Educational    Doctrine. 


Translated  by  A.  F.  Lange;  annotated  by  Charles  De  Garmo. 
Pp.  xi+334.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1901. 

"Herbart's  latest,  and  also  his  most  complete  work  on  education." 
An  outline  text-book.  A  large  part  .deals  -with  aspects  of  moral 
education,  especially  government  and  discipline. 

The  Science  of  Education.      Trans- 


lated bv  H.  M.  and  E.  Felkin.     Pp.  xviiH-268.      D.  C.  Heath 
&  Co.,  Boston,  1893. 

A  large  part  of  this  important  work  deals  directly  with  the  various 
aspects  of  moral  education. 

Hinsdale,  B.   A.      Studies  in  Education:   Science,  Art,  Historjf.    Pp.      4^ 
384.     AVerner  School  Book  Co.,  Chicago,  (copyright)  1896. 
See  chapter  XI,  The  Moral  and  ReUgious  Training  of  Children.     Other 
papers  touch  the  same  problem. 

Holman,  H.     Education.      An  Introduction  to  its  Principles  and    • 
their  Psychological  Foundations.    Pp.  xii+536.     Isbister  &  Co., 
London,    1896. 

An  attempt  at  a  general  philosophy  of  education  on  the  basis  of  mod- 
em science.     Some  value  for  moral  education. 


320  MORAL   EDUCATION 

Hopkins,  Louisa    Parsons.     The    Spirit  of    the   New   Education. 

Pp.  282.     Lee  &  Shepard,  Boston,  1892. 

Popular  lectures,  fine  in  spirit,  resulting  from  experience  and  in  bne 
with  the  best  in  the  new  education.  See  especially:  The  Moral  Probkiu 
in  the  Public  Schools,  pp.  50-59;  Education  of  the  Soul,  pp.  60-7x; 
Character  as  an  Object  of  School  Education,  pp.  72-101. 

Howerth,  I.  W.     Development  of  the  Social  Aim  in  Education.     In 

Journal  of  Pedagogy,  vol.  XII,  pp.  230-242;  vol.  XIII,  pp.  102- 

109,  169-180.     Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  December  1899,  October  1900, 

January  1901. 

A  suggestive  sketch  of  what  the  author  considers  the  five  stages  in  the 
development  of  educational  ideals  in  America:  (1)  Religious,  (2)  Political, 
''3)  Economic,  (4)  Moral,  (5)  Social. 

Howland,  George.  Practical  Hints  for  the  Teachers  of  Public 
Schools.  Pp.  xii  +  202.  International  Education  Series,  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1895. 

Some  value  in  the  chapters  dealing  with  moral  education  and  the 
teacher's  influence. 

Hughes,  James  L.  Dickens  as  an  Educator.  Pp.  xi  +  319.  Inter- 
national Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1901. 

An  excellent  account  of  the  influence  of  Dickens,  fully  illustrated  by 
selections.     Deals  with  coercion,  nutrition,  child  nature,  training,  etc. 

—     FroebeVs  Educational  Laws.     Pp.  xiii  +  296. 

International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York, 

1897. 

Good  chapters  bearing  on  moral  education.  See  especially:  V,  Play  as 
an  Educational  Factor;  VI,  The  Harmony  between  Control  and  Spon- 
taneity; X,  Indi^dduaiity  and  Self-Expression ;  and  XIII,  Froebel'a 
Ethical  Principles. 

Mistakes    in    Teaching.       Pp.    135.      C.  W. 


Bardeen,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  1895. 

Hughes,  R.  E.  The  Making  of  Citizens.  A  Study  in  Comparative 
Education.  Pp.  viii  +  405.  Contemporary  Science  Series,  The 
Walter  Scott  Publishing  Company,  London,  1902. 

A  valuable  comparative  study  of  the  school  systems  of  England,  Ger- 
many, France  and  the  United  States. 

Hughes,  Thomas.  Tom  Broivn's  School  Days.  Pp.  xvi-f  357. 
A.  L.  Burt,  New  York.     No  date. 

One  of  the  best  expressions  of  the  moral  methods  and  influence  of 
Thomas  Arnold. 

Humphreys,  Mary  Gay.     The  Smallest  Republic  in  the  World.     In 
McClure's  Magazine,  vol.  IX,  pp.  735-747.  New  York,  July  1897. 
A  readable  popular  article  on  The  George  Junior  Republic.     Illus- 
trated. 

Huntington,  James  O.  S.  Chapters  IV  and  V,  pp.  98-204  in 
Philanthropy  and  Social  Progress,  by  Jane  Addams,  et  al.: 
IV,  Philanthropi/ — Its  Success  and  Failure;  V,  Philanthropy 
and  Morality,     t.  Y.  Croweli  &  Co.,  New  York,  1893  (?). 

An  admirable  arraignment  of  the  errors  and  insincerities  of  modern 
philanthropy,  throwing  light  on  the  larger  problem  of  moral  education. 
Unusually  frank  and  truthful  in  spirit. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  321 

Hyde,  William  De  Witt.     Practical  Idealism.     Pp.  xi  +  335      The 
Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1897. 

Fine  in  spirit  and  contains  much  bearing  incidentally  on  moral 
education. 

James,  William.     The  Prinriphs  of   Psychology.     Two  vols  ,  pp 

xii  +  689  and  vi  +  704.     Henry  Holt  &  Co. ,  New  York,  1899. 

See,  in  this  illuminating  and  suggestive  work,  especially  chapter  IV,  on 
Habit,  which  is  an  impressive  ethical  sermon  on  a  fundamental  problem 
of  moral  education. 

Talks  to  Teachers.  Pp.  xi  +  301.     Henry  Holt  & 

Co.,  New  York,  1899. 

Excellent,  fresh,  suggestive  applications  of  psychology  to  education 
and  life. 


Varieties  of  Religious  Experience.     Pp.  xii +  534. 

Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  New  York,  1903. 

The  main  value  of  the  work  for  moral  education  lies  in  showing  the 
transforming  power  of  religious  experience  in  giving  purpose,  purity  and 
joy  to  human  life. 

Jegi,  John  I.  Children's  Ambitions.  In  Transactions  of  the 
Illinois  Society  for  Child  Study,  edited  by  Charles  H.  Thur- 
ber,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  131-114.  University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chic- 
ago, October  1898. 

An  inductive  study  with  a  review  of  previous  studies  in  the  same  field, 
and  educational  applications. 

Johnson,  George  E.  Play  in  Character  Building.  In  How  to 
Help  Boys,  vol.  Ill,  no.  4,  pp.  239-253.  Boston,  October 
1903. 

An  excellent  article  discussing  play  in  relation  to  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion, urging  that  each  phase  of  development  needs  its  own  expression. 

—  Education  by  Plays  and  Games.  In  Peda- 
gogical Seminary,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  97-133.  Worcester,  October 
1894. 

"The  object  of  this  study  is  to  present  somewhat  more  concretely  than 
has  been  done  before  the  educational  value  of  play,  and  to  suggest  some 
practical  applications  to  the  work  of  education  in  the  grades  above  the 
kindergarten."  Suggests  a  graded  course  of  games.  A  rather  miscella- 
neous but  suggestive  study. 

Jolly,  William,  Editor.  Education:  Its  Principles  and  Practice 
as  Developed  by  George  Combe.  Pp.  xxvi  +  772.  Macmillan  ifc 
Co.,  London,  1879. 

Compiled    from    pamphlets    and    manuscripts    of   Combe,    the    great 
phrenologist.     Contains  much  on  training  moral  and  mental    'faculties. 
Out  of  date,  but  excellent  in  its  time. 

Keferstein,    Horst.      Volksbildung     und      Volksbildner.  Piida- 

gogisches  Magazin,  no.  121.     Pp.  ix  +  38.      Langensalza,  1899. 

A  general  review,  inclusive  but  brief  and  slight,  of  the  instruments  <.f 

education.     Especially  good  in  emphasizing  the  need    for    cooperation 

on  the  part  of  home  and  school,  parents  and  teachers. 


322  MORAL   EDUCATION 


Kennedy,    Helen    P.      Effect  of  High   School    Work    upon    Girls 

during  Adolescence.      In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.   Ill,   pp. 

469-482.     Worcester,  June  1896. 

A  study  of  the  replies  of  125  girls  to  a  series  of  questions.  Shows 
strongly  the  need  of  home  instruction  in  the  intimate  problems  of  human 
life. 

Kiddle,    Henry,   and    Schem,    Alex.   J.,   Editors.     Ci/clopcEdia  of 

Education.     Pp.  v  +  868  +  xi.     E.  Steiger,  New  York,  1877. 

See  articles  dealing  with  various  phases  of  moral  education,  as:  Cor- 
poral Punishment,  Government,  Discipline. 

King,  Irving.  The  Psychology  of  Child  Deveolpment.  Pp.  xxi  +  265. 
University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago,  1903. 

Kirkpatrick,  Edwin  A.     Fundamentals  of  Child  Study.     Pp.  xxi  +  ' 
384.     The  Macmillan  Co. ,  New  York,  1904. 

Several  portions  of  the  book  treat  indirectly  of  mor^l  education.  See 
especially  chapter  XI,  Development  of  Instincts — -Regulative  (Moral 
and  Religious). 

Kovalevsky,  S6nya.  Her  Recollections  of  Childhood.  Translated 
from  the  Russian  by  Isabel  F.  Hapgood.  With  a  Biography 
by  Anna  Carlotta  Leffler.  Pp.  318.  The  Century  Co.,  Nev/ 
York,  1895. 

Pages  1-151  give  S6nya  Koyalevsky's  Autobiography  of  Childhood, 
an  unusually  instructive  study  with  reference  to  the  function  of  parental 
love  and  tenderness  in  the  life  of  a  sensitive,  gifted  child.  The  Biography 
deals  with  the  larger  problems  of  hfe  education. 

Kramer,  John  W.     The  Right  Road.     A  Handbook  for  Parents  and 

Teachers.     Pp.  v  +  282.     James  Nisbet  &Co.,  London,  1892. 

An  interesting  collection  of  stories,  gathered  from  all  quarters,  arranged 
on  a  scheme  of  duties,  and  followed  by  didactic  questions  and  comments. 
The  book  is  worth  studying  as  an  experiment;  but  the  stories  are  mainly 
of  the  type  of  the  old-time  Sunday  school  literature,  and  are  not  suffi- 
ciently artistic  to  serve  as  the  best  text  for  ethical  instruction. 

Kriege,  Matilda  H.  The  Child,  Its  Nature  and  Relations;  An 
Elucidation  of  Froebel's  Principles -of  Education.  A  free  render- 
ing of  the  German  of  the  Baroness  Marenholtz-Biilow.  Pp.  148. 
E.  Steiger,  New  York,  1877. 

A  good  expression  of  Froebel's  principles  and  influence. 

Laloi,  Pierre.  L'Annee  Preparatoire  d' Instruction  Morale  et  d^ In- 
struction Civique.     Pp.  136.     Armand  Colin  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1900. 

Prepared  in  obedience  to  the  official  program  for  1887.  Very  simple 
moral  lessons,  brief  stories,  illustrations,  questions. 

La  Premiere  Annee  d' Instruction  Morale  et  Civique. 


Pp.  208.     Armand  Colin  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1900. 

Prepared  in  obedience  to  the  official  program  of  1887  and  the  minis- 
terial order  of  1891.  Simple  lessons,  stories,  illustrations,  questions  and 
reviews.     An  excellent  primary  text-book.     In  its  43rd  edition. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  323 

Lancaster,  E.  G.  The  Psychology  and  Pedagogy  of  Adolescence. 
In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  V,  pp.  61-128.  Worcester,  July 
1897. 

An  admirable  study  based  chiefly  on  returns  from  a  syllabus  sent  out 
under  President  Hall's  direction.  This  long  article  contains  not  only  a 
mass  of  interesting  facts,  but  some  helpful  appUcations  to  physical  and 
moral   education. 

Larned,  J.  N.     Primer  of  Right  and  Wrong;  For  Young  People  in 
Schools  and  Families.     Pp.  vi  +  167.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co 
Boston,  1902. 

Intended  as  a  text-book  for  direct  ethical  instruction.  Contains 
didactic  lessons  gi\-ing  an  analysis  of  duties,  with  some  quotations,  e,\- 
amples,  and  illustrations  from  biography  and  Uterature.  Modern  and 
one  of  the  best  texts  in  Enghsh. 

Lecky,  William  Edward  Hartpole.  The  Map  of  Life:  Conduct 
and  Character.  Pp.  xiv  +  353.  Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  New 
York,  1899. 

See  especially  chapter  XII,  The  Management  of  Character. 

Lee,  Joseph.  Constructive  and  Preventive  Philanthropy.  Pp.  x  +  242. 
The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

A  general  discussion  of  practical  work  in  meeting  the  problems  of 
modern  city  Ufe.  Chapters  deaUng  with  Playgrounds,  Clubs,  Vacation 
Schools. 

Lehmann,  R.  Erziehung  und  Erzieher.  Pp.  viii  +  344.  Weidmann- 
sche  Buchhandlung,  Berlin,  1901. 

Lesshaft,  P.      De  V Education  de  VEnfant  dans  la  Famille-^t  de  sa 
Signification.     Pp.  269.     Albert  Schuiz,  Paris,  1894.       ^\^ 
Devoted  mainly  to  a  discussion  of  the  various  types  of  childhood^ 

Le  Sueur,  W.  D.  Canada's  Attempted  Solution  of  the  Problem  of 
Religious  Education  in  the  Public  Schools.  In  Ethical  Record, 
vol.  V,  no.  1,  pp.  7-13.      New  York,  October-November  1903. 

Leuba,  James  H.  A  Study  in  the  Psychology  of  Religious  Phc- 
noynena.  In  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  vol.  VII,  pp. 
309-385.     Worcester,  April  1896. 

This  study  centres  on  conversion,  containing  an  analysis  of  its  phe- 
nomena, with  numerous  illustrative  cases,  and  a  discussion  of  the  relation 
of  current»theology  to  the  facts  brought  out. 

Levasseur,  E.  Comparative  Study  of  Popular  Education  Among 
Civilized  Nations:  Administration  of  Popular  Education. 
Translated  by  W.  Addis.  In  Report  of  the  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Education  for  1895-1896,  vol.  I,  chapter  X, 
pp.  601-610.  Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1897. 
The  most  valuable  part  of  this  article  deals  with  the  relation  of  pubUc 
education  to  religion  and  to  the  state  in  various  countries. 

Liard,  Louis.  Morale  et  Enseignement  Civigue,  a  V  Usage  des  Ecoles 
Primaires.  Cours  moyen  et  cours  sup6rieur.  Pp.  viii+200.  Leo- 
pold Cerf,  Paris,  1886. 

A  fair  example  of  the  numerous  French  text-books  for  ethical  mstruc- 
tion.  Contains  brief  lessona  on  duties,  partly  in  dialogue  form,  with 
questions  and  review. 


324  MORAL   EDUCATION 


L'Instituteur   Primaire   et   I'Enseignement    de    la   Morale.      In 

Re^Tie  des  Deux  Mondes,  vol.  CLI,  pp.  873-894.    Paris,  January- 
Si,  1899. 

Opposed  to  the  effort  to  teach  morals  in  the  public  schools.     Gives  an 

excellent  idea  of  the  difficulties  in  the  ethical  and  religious  instruction 

of  children  in  state  schools. 

Locke,  John.  Some  Thoughts  Concerning  Education.  With  Intro- 
duction and  notes  by  R.  H.  Quick.  Pp.  xiv  +  240.  Cambridge 
University  Press,  London,  1892. 

Sound  common-sense,  much  of  it  thoroughly  applicable  today. 
Especially  good  on  moral  disciphne. 

Long,  George.  The  Conduct  of  Life:  A  Series  of  Essays.  Pp.  xi  + 
239.     John  Murray,  London,  1845. 

Readable  old-time  essays.  The  part  dealing  with  family  life  i^  of 
some  value  for  moral  education. 

Loti,  Pierre.     (Pseudonym   for   Louis  Marie  Julien  Viaud.)     The 

Story  of  a  Child.     Translated  from  the  French  by  Caroline  F. 

Smith.     Pp.  xi  +  304.     C.  C.  Birchard  &  Co.,  Boston,  1902. 

One  of  the  most  instructive  autobiographies  of  childhood.  Artistic, 
temperamental,  giving  only  moods  and  impressions.  An  extreme  antith- 
esis to  the  autobiography  of  John  Stuart  Mill  as  a  study  of  childhood. 

Lukens,  Herman  T.  A  Study  of  Children's  Drawings  in  the  Early 
Years.  In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  IV,  pp.  79-110. 
Worcester,  October  1896. 

An  inductive  study,  agreeing  in  its  results  with  the  studies  by  Earl 
Barnes  and  others  in  holding  that  art  should  be  a  language  of  expression 
for  young  children  long  before  they  are  taught  the  grammar  of  art.  All 
these  studies  have  an  important  bearing  on  the  general  problem  of  moral 
education  through  free  acti\'ity. 

Luqueer,  Frederic  Ludlow.  Ilegel  as  Educator.  Columbia 
University  Contributions  to  Philosophy,  Psychology  and 
Education,  vol.  II,  no.  1.     Pp.  185.     The  Macmillan  Co., New 

York,  1896. 

Contains  a  translation  of  the  principal  thoughts  of  Hegel  on  education. 

Lynd,  W.  S.  Moral  Influence  of  Rewards.  Chapter  "\^I,  pp. 
109-128,  in  The  Teacher's  Miscellany,  a  selection  of  articles 
from  the  proceedings  of  the  College  of  Professional  Teachers, 
by  J.  L.  Campbell  and  A.  M.  Hadley.  The  J.  B.  Lippincott 
Co.,  Philadelphia,  1856. 

Somewhat  out  of  date,  but  good. 

Lyttleton,  E.     Instruction  of   the   Young  in  Sexual  Knowledge.     In 

International  Journal  of  Ethics,  vol.  IX,  no.  4,  pp.  453-467. 

Philadelphia,  July  1899. 

A  sane,  temperate,  straightforward  article,  advocating  definite  in- 
struction in  sex  knowledge,  and  showing  the  method  in  some  detail. 

—  Mothers  and  Sons,  or  Problems  in  the  Home  Train- 
ing of  Boys.  Pp.  ix  +  169.  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York, 
1893. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  325 

]VIac  Cunn,  John.  The  Making  of  Character.  Some  Educational 
Aspects  of  Ethics.  Pp.  vii+226.  The  Cambridge  Series  for 
Schools  and  Training  Colleges,  The  Macniillan  Co.,  New 
York,  1900. 

A  good  discussion,  utilizing  certain  aspects  of  the  newer  psychology, 
especially  the  work  of  Professor  James.  Comprehensive  rather  than 
organic. 

Mac  Donald,  Arthur.  Abnormal  Man,  being  Essays  on  Education 
a?}d  Crime  and  Related  Subjects,  xcith  Digests  of  Literature  and  a 
Bibliography.     Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1893. 

Malleson,  Mrs.  F.     Notes  on  the  Early  Training  of  Children.     Pp. 
iv+127.     D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.,  Boston,  1892. 
Early  moral  education  by  nurture  and  discipline. 

Mann,  Horace.  The  Life  and  Works  of  Horace  Mann.  Five  vols. 
Lee  &  Shepard,  Boston,  1891. 

These  volumes  are  the  most  complete  memorial  of  the  work  and  influ- 
ence of  Horace  ^lann  in  American  education.  The  more  direct  discus- 
sion of  moral  education  will  be  found  in  vol.  II  (see  especially  "On  School 
Punishments,"  pp.  333-368)  and  vol.  V. 

Mann,  Mary  Peabody.  Moral  Culture  of  Infancy.  Pp.  105-206  in 
Guide  to  the  Kindergarten  by  Elizabeth  P.  Peabody  and  the 
above.     E.  Steiger,  New  York,  1877. 

Practical  letters  full  of  miscellaneous  and  unclassified  concrete  detail, 
written  in  the  true  kindergarten  spirit. 

Marion,  Henri.  De  la  Solidarite  Morale.  Essai  de  Psychologic 
Appliquee.  Pp.  viiiH-359,  Bibliotheque  de  Philosophic  Con- 
temporaine.     Felix  Alcan,  Paris,  1890. 

Excellent  and  modern,  though  sometimes  slight  in  treatment.  Sound 
suggestions  on  the  influence  of'early  education  and  on  moral  crises. 

Mark,  H.  Thiselton.  Individuality  and  the  Moral  Aim  in  Ameri- 
can Education.  The  Gilchrist  Report  presented  to  the  Victoria 
University,  March  1901.  Pp.  xiii+298.  Longmans,  Green,  & 
Co.,  New  York,  1901.  ^  .^      „. 

An  interesting  view  of  American  education  from  the  outside.  Mis- 
cellaneous reports  of  opinions,  with  little  imity  beyond  that  given  by  the 
underlying  questioa  of  the  book. 

An    Outline  of    the  History    of    Educational 

Theories  in  England.    Pp.  xi+139.    Swan  Sonnenschein  &Co., 

London,  1899.  _.  , „     ,  -r.. 

See  chapter  VI  on  the  Development  of  the  Theory  of  Moral  Education 

in  England. 

Tlie    Teacher    and    the    Child.     Elements    of 


Moral  and  Religious  Teaching  in  the  Day  School,  the  ^ome  and 

the  Sunday  School.    Pp.  1G5.    T.  Fisher  Unwm,  London,  1903. 

A  simple   manual,    written   more    particularly   with   Sunday    school 

te^hfrTFn  mind.     Chapters  IX-XV  deal  with  aspects  of  moral  educa- 

tion. 


326  MORAL   EDUCATION 


Marsh,  Harriet  A.     A  New  Aspect  of  Child  Study.    In  Pedagogical 
Seminary,  vol.  V,  pp.  136-145.     Worcester,  July  1897. 

Describes  an  interesting  and  successful  experiment  in  bringing  mothers 
and  teachers  together  at  regular  intervals  to  discuss  their  common  prob- 
lems in  the  education  of  children. 

Marsh,  Mabel  A.     Children  and  Animals.      In  Studies  in  Educa" 

tion,  edited  bv  Earl  Barnes,  vol.  II,  pp.  83-99. 

An  inductive  study,  based  on  a  thousand  papers  from  London  School 
Board  children,  dealing  with  the  attitude  of  children  toward  pets.  A 
further  side  study  by  Miss  Cash  immediately  follows  the  above:  see  pp. 
100-107. 

Martin,  George  H.     The   Unseen  Korce  in  Character  Making.     In 

Journal  of  Education,  vol.  XLIX,  pp.  164-166.    Boston,  March 

1899. 

An  address  read  at  the  Department  of  Superintendence  meeting, 
Columbus.  General,  deaUng  especially  with  the  influence  of  personality, 
in  teacher  and  books,  for  character  building. 

Martin,  George  Madden.     Emmy  Lou,  Her  Book  and  Heart.      Pp. 

279.     McClure,  Phillips  &  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

A  charming  interpretation  of  child  life,  containing  incidentally  an 
instructive  criticism  of  our  public  school  system. 

Martineau,  Harriet.      Household  EdvA^ation.     Pp.  viii4-212.     Lea 

&  Blanchard,  Philadelphia,  1849. 

Excellent,  though  ->  little  out  of  date.  Especially  good  suggestions 
on  the  education  parents  receive  from  household  life. 

Mason,  Charlotte  M.      Home   Education.      A  Course  of  Lectures 

to  Ladies,  delivered  in  Bradford,  in  the  winter  of  1885-1886. 

Pp.   xi-|-369.     Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  Triibner  &  Co.,  London, 

1896. 

Miscellaneous  suggestions  on  all  aspects  of  early  education;  often  help- 
ful, everywhere  detailed  and  concrete,  occasionally  sentimental. 

—      Parents  and  Children.     A  sequel  to  Home 


Education.      Pp.  xii-f-4^9.     Kegan    Paul,  Trench,  Triibner  & 
<!o.,  London,  1897. 

Essaysreprinted  from  the  Parents'  Re^'iew.  Of  the  same  tj^^e  as  the 
lectures  in  Home  Education.  Sound  counsel,  especially  in  the  more 
concrete  studies  of  book  II,  though  over-emphasizing  devices  for  manag- 
ing children. 

Matson,  Henry.    Knoiuledge  and  Culture.    Pp.  170.   A.  C.  McClurg 
&  Co.,  Chicago,  1895 

Of  some  value  with  reference  to  the  ideal  of  education. 

Matthews,  F.  H.      A    Dialogue   on  Moral  Education.      Pp.   257. 
Swan  Sonnenschein  &  Co.,  London,  1898. 

A  treatise  covering  many  aspects  of  moral  education;  cast  in  the  form 
of  a  series  of  conversations  by  a  doctor,  a  schoolmaster,  a  clergyman  and 
their  wives. 


BIBIJOGRAPHY  327 

Matthews,  Shailer.  The  Curriculum  of  Study  in  the  Sunday 
School.  In  Proceedin9;3  of  the  Religious  Education  Associa- 
tion, 1903,  pp.  180-199. 

Matthias,  Adolf.  Praktische  Pddagogik  fiir  hohere  Lchranstalten. 
Pp.  397.     C.  H.  Beck,  Munich,  1895. 

See  pp.  10-29  for  an  interesting  discussion  of  the  influence  of  the 
teacher's  personality;  and  pp.  118-214  for  a  consideration  of  discipline. 

Mayo,  A.  D.     Methods  of  Moral  Instruction  in  Common  Schools. 
In  Report  of   the  National  Educational  Association  for  1872, 
pp.  11-27.     Published  by  the  Association,  Peoria,  111.,  1873. 
A  popular,  practical  address  touching  the  main  aspects  of  moral  educa- 
tion. 

McMurry,  Charles  A.  The  Elements  of  General  Method  Based 
on  the  Principles  of  Herbart.  Pp.  331.  The  Macraillan  Co., 
New  York,  1903. 

The  chief  purpose  of  the  book  is  to  show  how  various  studies  can  be 
utiUzed  for  the  central  aim  of  character  building.  Advocates  moral 
culture  as  against  dry  ethical  instruction  and  urges  the  use  of  history 
and  literature.  One  of  the  best  expressions  of  the  American  Herbartian 
movement. 

—      Special    Method    in    History.     Pp.    7  + 

291.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1903. 

Plans  a  course  of  history  for  common  schools.  Considers  utilizing 
history  for  moral  culture. 

—     Special  Method   in  the  Reading  of  Com- 


y 


plete  Engtish  Classics  in  the  Grades  of  the  Common  School.     Pp. 
v  +  254.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1903. 

See  especially  chapter  I,  Educational  Value  of  Literature;  and  chapter 

II,  The  Use  of  Masterpieces  as  Wholes.     Contains  a  valuable  annotated 

list  of  books. 

Meynell,  Alice.    The  Children.     Pp.  134.     John  Lane,  New  York, 

1897. 

Pleasant  and  sympathetic  little  sketches. 

Mezieres,  M.  A.^  Education  Morale,  et  Instruction  Civique 
a  V  Usage  des  Ecoles  Primaires.  Cours  moyen  et  superieur.  Pp. 
vii+176.     Ch.  Delagrave,  Paris,  1883. 

A  simple  course  of  didactic  lessons,  with  examples  and  exercises. 

Mill,  James.  Education.  In  Essays,  pp.  1-46.  J.  Innes,  London. 
No  date.  ,  ,  .       .• 

A  good,  clear  essay  of  the  dryly  intellectual  type.      Interestmg  espe- 
cially as  the  view  of  the  father  and  teacher  of  John  btuart  Mill. 

Mill,  John  Stuart.     Autobiography.     Pp.  vi-h313.     Henry  Holt  & 

Co.,  New  York,  1887.  ,     .        .  .     ,.       • 

Perhaps  the  most  valuable  autobiography  m   existence  in  throwing 
light  upon  education. 
Montaisne.     The  Education  of  Children.     Selected,  translated,  and 

annotated   by  L.  E.  Rector.     Pp^  ^^i^^  +  l?!-,    ^^JoT''^'''" 
Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.    New  1  ork,  1899. 

Chiefly  historical  in  interest,  yet  based  on  shrewd  observation  and 
containing  some  sound  wisdom  apphcable  today. 


328  MORAL   EDUCATION 

Morgan,  C.  Lloyd.    Psychology  for  Teachers.   Pp.  xi  +  240.    Charles 

Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1898. 

The  final  chapter,  on  Character  and  Conduct,  pp.  210-231,  deals  with 
the  aim  of  life  and  of  education. 

Morley,  Margaret  Warner.  Life  and  Love.  Pp.  214.  A.  C.  McClurg 
&  Co.,  Chicago,  1895. 

Like  A  Song  of  Life,  but  for  somewhat  more  advanced  pupils.  At 
once  frank  and  delicate  in  teaching  sex  through  nature  as  culminating 
in  human  life. 

A  Song  of  Life.  Pp.  155.  A.  C.  McClurg 

&  Co.,  Chicago,  1896. 

"Rlementary  instruction  in  sex  and  parenthood  through  lessons  from 
nature.  Delicately  done  and,  within  its  rigid  limits,  as  excellent  as  any- 
thing available. 

Mosher,  Martha  B.  Child  Culture  in  the  Home.  A  Book  for 
Mothers.  Pp.  240.  Sampson  Low,  Marston  &  Co.,  London, 
1898. 

A  good  modern  expression  of  Froebel,  showing  also  the  influence  of 
Emerson. 

Mosso,  Angelo.  Fatigue.  Translated  by  M.  and  W.  B.  Drum- 
mond.     Pp.  xiv  +  334.     G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York,  1904. 

A  scientific  study  with  a  great  indirect  value  in  reference  to  the  con- 
ditions of  sound  education. 

Fear.     Translated  from  the  .    .    .   Italian   by   E. 


Lough  and  F.   Kiesow.     Pp.  278.     Longmans,  Green,  &  Co., 

New  York,  1896. 

See  chapter  XIII.  Fear  in  Children;  and  chapter  XVI,  Hereditary 
Transmission,  Education. 

Mo  wry,  W.  A.,  et  al.  Moral  Education  in  Schools.  Report  of 
Committee  on  Moral  Education  to  the  National  Council  of 
Education.  In  Education,  vol.  IV,  pp.  1-14.  Boston,  Sep- 
tember 1883. 

An  admirable  report,  classifying  the  virtues  of  character  and  discuss- 
ing the  possibility  of  teaching  them  in  the  public  schools.  Emphasizes 
the  training  of  habit  as  against  direct  instruction  in  ethics,  urging  the 
use  of  the  opportunities  in  school  organization  and  government  to  form 
moral  habits.  Considers  the  relation  of  moral  to  religious  instruction 
and  holds  it  to  be  questionable  whether  any  religious  instruction  should 
be  attempted  in  the. schools. 

Mulock,  D.  M.      Sermons   out  of  Church.     Pp.    217.     Harper  & 

Brothers,  New  York,  1875. 

See  pp.  75-117,  on  How  to  Train  up  a  Parent  in  the  Way  He  Should 
Go. 

Newell,  William  W.      Games  and   Songs   of   American   Children. 

Pp.  XV +  282.     Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York,  1903. 

An  interesting  collection,  with  chapters  on  the  inventiveness  and  con- 
servatism of  children. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  329 

Nichol,  J.  P.    Moral  Training  in  Our  Common  Schools.     Suggestions 
of  Certain  Practical  Methods  of  Increasing  its  Efficiency :  being 
the  substance  of  a  discourse  read  before  the  Glasgow  Branch 
of  the  Scottish   Educational  Institute,  on  20th  ^larch,  1858 
Pp.  56.     R.  Griffin  &  Co.,  London,  1858. 

One  of  the  older  essays  emphasizing  the  opportunities  for  moral  culture 
in  the  common  schools. 

Obici,  Giulio.  Les  Erreurs  de  V Education  Sexuelle.  In  La  Revue, 
vol.  XLII,  pp.  381-404.     Paris,  August  15,  1902. 

A  criticism  of  rehgious  teaching,  boarding-school  influences  and  home 
neglect,  ^^-ith  a  sketch  of  a  positive  program  for  instruction  in  reference 
to  sex  questions. 

O'Connell,  Jerome  A.,  Editor.  Class  Management  Number  of 
New  York  Teachers'  Monographs.  Pp.  130.  New  York, 
March  1900. 

Excellent  articles  by  different  educators  on  all  aspects  of  class  manage- 
ment in  the  pubUc  schools. 

Oppenheim,  Nathan.     The  Development  of  the  Child.     Pp.  viii  + 

296.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1899. 

A  readable  book;  especially  good  in  discussing  the  relation  of  physical 
growth  to  moral  education.  Chapter  VI  deals  •with  the  place  of  reUgion 
in  the  development  of  the  child. 

Mental  Growth   and  Control.     Pp.  ix  +  296. 

The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

Descriptive  of  mental  life,  with  didactic  general  lessons  from  science 

O'Shea,  M.  V.  Education  as  Adjustment.  Pp.  xiv  +  317.  Long- 
mans, Green,  &  Co.,  New  Y^ork,  1903. 

—  —     Some   Adolescent   Reminiscences.     In    Journal    of 

Pedagogy,  vol.  XI,  pp.  299-316.      Syracuse,  N.  Y.,    October 

1898. 

An  inductive  study  emphasizing  the  need  for  the  sympathetic  appre- 
ciation of  young  people. 

Parker,  Francis  W.  Talks  on  Pedagogics.  Pp.  xvi4-491.  E. 
L.  Kellogg  &  Co.,  New  York,  (copyright)  1894. 

This  book  is  the  written  expression  of  Colonel  Parker's  spirit  and 
influence  in  education.  See  especially  chapters  I,  The  Child;  XIV, 
School  Government  and  Moral  Training;  XVI,  Democracy  and  Educar 
tion. 

Parkhurst,  Charles  H.  Talks  to  Young  Women.  Pp.  136. 
The  Century  Co.,  New  York,  1897.  ^^^^^    ,^    ^  ^ 

'^-eneral  talks,   kindly  in   spirit.      Chapters  VII,  VIII,   lA.  X  bear 
directly  on  moral  education. 
Pater,  Walter.       The    Child    in    the    House.       In    Miscellaneous 
Studies,  pp.  147-169.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1895. 
A    deUcate  bit  of  semi-autobiographical  literature  of  childhood.     A 
searching  into   shadowy  memories;  full  of  the  sense  of  the  mystery  of 
Hfe.      Strone  in  showing  the  influence  of  environment  and  events  in 
molding  a  child's  spirit. 


330  MORAL   EDUCATION 

Peabody,  Elizabeth    Palmer.      Guide  to  the    Kindergarten.      Pp. 

104.     E.  Steiger,   New  York,    1877. 

Mrs.  Mary  Peabody  Mann's  Moral  Culture  of  Infancy  is  in  the  same 
volume,  pp.  105-206. 

Penn,  William.  His  Advice  to  His  Children  Relating  to  Their 
Civil  and  Religious  Conduct.  In  Fruits  of  Solitude,  pp.  163- 
247.     R.  Eastburn,  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  1807. 

Interesting  old  counsel,  still  applicable,  if  somewhat  commonplace. 

Perez,  Bernard.      UEducation   Morale  des  le  Berceau,     Essai    de 

Psychologic    AppUquee.      Pp.    xxiv  +  321.       Bibliotheque     de 

Philosophie    Contemporaine,     Felix  Alcan,  Paris,  1888. 

A  good,  sound  book  in  the  main,  giving  concrete  and  detailed  counsel. 
Urges  a  combination  of  severity  and  kindliness.     Modern  in  spirit. 

The  First  Three    Years  of    Childhood.      Edited 

and  translated  by  Alice  M.  Christie.    Pp.   xxiii  +  292.     C.  W. 

Bardeen,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  1894. 

A  somewhat  scrappy  survey,  with  numerous  citations  of  concrete  cases 
and  frequent  helpful  suggestions. 

Pestalozzi,  Johann  Heinrich.  How  Gertrude  Teaches  Her  Chil- 
dren; An  Attempt  to  Help  Mothers  to  Teach  Their  Own  Children 
and  an  Account  of  the  Method.  Translated  by  Lucy  E.  Holland 
and  Francis  C.  Turner.  .  .  .  Edited  by  Ebenezer  Cooke. 
Pp.  li-f-256.      Swan  Sonnenschein  &  Co.,  London,  1894. 

Most  of  the  book  bears  on  Pestalozzi's  method  of  teaching  with  refer- 
ence to  senses  and  intellect.  The  last  portion  deals  with  moral  and 
religious  education  through  the  child's  relation  to  its  mother.  In  that 
relation  Pestalozzi  sees  the  centre  of  all  educational  influence.  These 
concluding  pages  contain  the  germ,  of  Froebel  and  many  subsequent 
educational  reformers. 

Leonard  and  Gertrude.     Translated 

and  abridged  by  Eva  Channing.    Pp.  xii+181.    D.  C.  Heath  & 
Co.,  Boston,  1891. 

Homely  sense  in  relation  to  life  and  its  duties.  Suggestions  for  sound 
moral  discipline.     Not  only  interesting  historically,  but  still  of  value. 

Letters  on  Early  Education. 

Translated  from  the  German  manuscript.      Pp.  180.     C.  W. 

Bardeen,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  1898. 

An  interesting  work.  _  The  German  original  was  never  published  and 
is  probably  no  longer  in  existence.  The  book  is  especially  strong  in 
expressing  Pestalozzi's  view  of  the  mother's  share  in  the  child's  educa- 
tion, and  contains  many  hints  which  are  still  helpful. 

Plato.  The  Republic.  Translated  by  B.  Jowett.  Pp.  ccxxxi  +  379. 
Clarendon  Press,  Oxford,  1888. 

See  Books  II,  III,  VI,  VII  for  Plato's  views  on  education. 

Plutarch.      Morals.      Edited  by  Wm.   W.   Goodwin.      Five  vols. 
Little,  Brown,  &  Co.,  Boston,  1871. 
1^.  See  vol.  I,  pp.  3-32 :  On  the  Training  of  Children. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


331 


Poulsson,  Emilie.  Love  and  Law  in  Child  Training  A  Book  for 
Mothers.  Pp.  235.  The  Milton  Bradley  Co.,  Springlield, 
ivxsss. ,  loyy. 

Pne  of  the  good  expressions  of  Froebel  and  the  kindergarten,  con- 
taining helpful  applications  of  the  principles  and  experience  of  the  kin- 
dergarten to  the  home. 

Powell,  Aaron  M.,  Editor.  The  National  Purity  Congress  (held 
at  Baltimore,  1895),  Its  Papers,  Addresses,  Portraits.  Pp.  453. 
The  American  Purity  Alliance,  New  York,  1896, 

A  few  of  the  papers  consider  the  education  of  children  in  questions  of 
sex. 

Preyer,  W.  Mental  Development  in  the  Child.  Translated  by  H. 
W.  Brown.  Pp.  170.  International  Education  Series,  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1894. 

Prince,  J.  T.  Moral  Training  and  School  Government.  In  Educa- 
tion, vol.  V,  pp.  113-126.     Boston,  November  1884. 

Emphasizes  development  of  character  as  the  one  great  end  of  all 
education.  Recognizes  that  moral  culture  must  come  through  the 
whole  work  and  government  of  the  school.  A  large  number  of  helpful 
miscellaneous  suggestions. 

Putnam,  Daniel.  Elementary  Psychology  or  First  Principles  of 
Mental  and  Moral  Science,  for  High,  Normal, and  Other  Secondary 
Schools,  and  for  Private  Reading.  Pp.  x+283.  American  Book 
Co.,  New  York,  1889. 

A  simple,  readable  book,  consisting  largely  of  definitions  and  descripH 
tion. 

Quilter,  Hugh  H.      Onward  and  Upward.     A  Book  for  Boys  and 

Girls.     Pp.  200.     E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

An  attempt  to  teach  morals  to  children  from  ten  to  fourteen,  by 
analogies  from  neture  popularizing  evolution.  Though  denying  that 
he  does  so,  the  author  'writes  down'  to  children,  and  the  result  is 
rather  unsatisfactory. 

Rein,  Wilhelm.     Cidture  and  Education.     In  Forum,  vol.  XXVI, 

pp.   693-702.     New  York,  February   1899. 

A  strong,  brief  article  advocating  wider  adult  education  and  a  closer 
union  of  the  schools  with  the  masses  of  the  people.  While  written 
from  the  point  of  view  of  German  problems,  it  is  full  of  suggestion  for 
America. 

Erziehungs- und    Bildungs-Ideale.       In  Gottinper 

Arbeiterbibliothek,  vol.  II,  no.  9,  pp.  129-144.    Gottingen,  1S9S. 

Written  for  workingmen.  Didactic  and  to  the  point.  Considers 
especially  the  relation  of  education  to  the  problems  of  German  civiliza- 
tion. 

Outlines  of  Pedagogics.      Translated  by  C.  C.  and 

Ida  J.  Van  Liew.      Pp.    xii-fl99.     C.  W.  Bardeen,  Syracuse, 
N.  Y.,  1893. 


332  MORAL   EDUCATION 


Religious    Education    Association.        Proceedings    of    the    First 

Annual  Convention,  Chicago,  February  10-12,  1903.     Pp.  viii4- 

422.     Executive  Office  of  the  Association,  Chicago,  1903. 

The  whole  volume  is  interesting  as  expressing  the  revived  interest  in 
religious  education.     Contains  some  helpful  addresses. 

Repplier,  Agnes.       Books     and    Men.      Pp.     224.       Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1893. 

The  chapter  on  Children,  Past  and  Present,  pp.  1-32,  keenly  contrasts 

the  old  regime  of  restriction  with  the  new  one  of  license.     The  chapter  on 

What  Children  Read,  pp.  64-93,  contrasts  the  reading  of  whole  books  of 

.  true  Uterature,  with  the  effect  of  the  diluted  and  fragmentary  material 

children  read  today. 

Little  Pharisees  in  Fiction.      In  Varia,  pp.  85- 

109.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1897. 

Contains  a  bright  criticism  of  Sunday  school  stories  of  the  Elsie  Dins- 
more  type. 

Rice,  J.  M.     Public  School  System  of  the  United  States.      Pp.  vi  + 

308.     The  Century  Co.,  New  York,  1893. 

Based  on  the  investigation,  undertaken  for  the  Forum,  into  the  school 
systems  of  a  number  of  the  larger  cities  of  the  United  States.  Full  of 
concrete  data  and  frank  criticism.  Indirectly  of  much  value  for  the 
present  problem  of  moral  education. 


Richmond,  Ennis.     Boyhood.      A  Plea  for  Continuity  in  Educa- 
tion.   Pp.  154.     Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  New  York,  1898. 

A  simple  discussion  of  rnoral  training  in  the  early  years  of  boyhood. 
For  parents,  with  the  aim  of  bringing  about  greater  cooperation  of 
teachers  and  parents. 

The  Mind  of  a  Child.     Pp.  176.     Longmans, 

Green,  &  Co.,  New  York,  1901. 

Advocates  the  'spiritual'  as  opposed  to  the  scientific  \'iew  of  child- 
hood.   A  general  discussion  of  phases  of  moral  education  for  parents. 

Through    Boyhood   to  Manhood.     A    Plea   for 


Ideals.     Pp.  194.     Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  New  York,  1899. 

A  criticism  of  English  schools  for  boys.  Contains  some  helpful  ideag 
with  reference  to  dealing  with  sex  problems. 

Richter,  Jean  Paul  Friedrich.  Levana;  or,  The  Doctrine  of 
Education.  Translated  from  the  German  by  "A.  H."  Pre- 
ceded by  a  short  biography  of  the  author,  and  his  autobiog- 
raphy, a  fragment.  Pp.  xliv  +  413.  George  Bell  &  Sona, 
London,  1886. 

Contains  much  homely  wisdom  bearing  on  various  aspects  of  moral 
education.  Somewhat  apart  from  the  main  line  of  German  educational 
reform,  but  none  the  less  helpful. 

Riis,  Jacob  A.  The  Battle  with  the  Slum.  Pp.  xi+465.  The 
Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

^  The  best  account  of  the  problem  moral  education  confronts  in  a  gteat 
city.  Optimistic,  vigorous,  born  of  direct  experience  in  helping  to  solve 
the  problem. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  333 

■ The  Children  of  the  Poor.    Pp.  xi+300.    Charles 

Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1892. 

A  large  amount  of  concrete  material,  collected  through  personal  in- 
vestigation, illustrating  the  conditions  under  which  children  live  in  the 
crowded  districts  of  New  York,  and  showing  certain  acute  phases  of  the 
problem  of  moral  education. 

How  the  Other  Half  Lives.      Studies  Among  the 

Tenements   of  New    York.      Pp.  xv  +  304.     Charles  Scribneria 
Sons,  New  York,  1892. 

Mr.  Riis's  first  book  and  the  type  of  all  his  work  in  showing  the  moral 
problems  in  the  great  centres  of  population. 

The  Making  of  an  American.     Pp.  xiii-f  443.    The 


Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

A  charming  book  with  considerable  incidental  bearing  on  the  larger 
task  of  moral  education. 

Rosenkranz,  Johann  Karl  Friedrich.  The  Philosopy  of  Edu- 
cation. Translated  by  Anna  C.  Brackett.  Pp.  xxviii+286. 
International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New 
York,  1891. 

Chapters  XII-XVI  deal  with  aspects  of  moral  education. 

Ross,  Edward  Alsworth.  Social  Control.  A  Survey  of  the  Foun- 
dations of  Order.  Pp.  xii  +  463.  The  Citizen's  Library  of 
Economics,  Politics,  and  Sociology,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New 
York,  1901. 

A  study  of  the  forces  Society  uses  (such  as  belief,  art,  ideals,  education, 
public  opinion)  to  bring  the  indi\adual  into  harmony  with  the  ends  of 
the  group.     Suggestive,  fresh,  one-sided  and  incomplete. 

Rousseau,   Jean    Jacques.      l^mile;   or    Treatise     on    Education. 

Abridged,  translated  and  annotated  by  Wm.  H.  Payne.     Pp. 

xlv  +  355.      International  Education    Series,  D.   Appleton    & 

Co.,  New  York,  1893. 

If  ill  of  suggestiveness.  Reactionary  upon  the  time,  with  Rousseau's 
characteristic  strength  and  weakness.  Largely  superseded  in  detail  and 
corrected  by  modern  thought  and  work,  but  permanently  valuable  for  its 
spirit,  aims  and  suggestions.  The  translation  is  unfortunately  badly 
cut  and  rather  cfficiously  annotated. 

Royce,  Josiah.  On  Certain  Psychological  Aspects  of  Moral  Train- 
ing. In  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  vol.  Ill,  no.  4,  pp. 
413-436.     Philadelphia,  July  1893. 

Valuable  in  reference  to  the  aim  of  moral  education.  States  two  great 
aspects  of  the  aim  (benevolence  and  reasonableness)  and  studies  the 
conflict  between  them  in  the  development  of  conscience. 

—     The  New  Psychology  and  the  Consulting  Psycholo- 


gist.    In  Forum,  vol  XXVl,  pp.  80-96.     New  York,  Septem- 
ber 1898. 

An  excellent  article  vigorously  urging  the  appointment  of  consulting 

psychologists  in  our  public  schools  to  mediate  between  laboratories  and 

teachers. 


V^ 


834  MORAL   EDUCATION 


Ruskin,  John.  Prceterita:  Outlines  of  Scenes  and  Thoughts  Per- 
haps Worthy  of  Memory,  in  My  Past  Ldfe.  Three  vols.,  pp. 
iv  +  301  and  304  and  126.      J.  Wiley  &  Sons,  New  York,  1890. 

The  portion  of  this  aut9biography  dealing  with  Ruskin's  childhood  is 
of  value  for  moral  and  religious  education. 

Rylands,  L.  Gordon.  Criwe,  Its  Cause  and  Remedy.  Pp.  iv  + 
264.     T.  Fisher  Unwin,  London,  1889. 

Chapters  V  and  VI  deal  with  the  moral  education  by  the  state,  in 
industrial  schools,  of  children  who  bid  fair  to  become  criminals.  A 
valuable  book. 

Sabin,  Ellen.  Ethics  in  Education.  In  Proceedings  of  the 
Seventh  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Congress  of  Religion  held  at 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  June-July  1901,  pp.  29-46.  Unity  Pub- 
lishing Co.,  Chicago.     No  date. 

An  admirable  general  article  urging  a  more  hardy  moral  discipline  in 
home  and  school,  with  the  direct  ethical  instruction  of  children. 

Savage,  M.  J.       The  Rights  of  Children.       In  Arena,  vol.  VI,  pp. 

8-16.     Boston,  June  1892. 

A  pleasant  general  article  expressing  the  modern  kindly  attitude 
toward  childhood. 

Schallenberger,  Margaret  E.  A  Study  of  Children's  Rights  as 
Seen  by  Themselves.  In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  87- 
96.     Worcester,  October  1894. 

Scholz,  Fr.  Die  Charakterfehler  des  Kindes,  Eine  Erziehungslehre 
fiir  Haus  und  Schule.      Pp.  viii  +  255.      E.  H.  Mayer,  Leipzig. 

An  effort  to  depict  the  chief  types  of  pathological  children,  with  sug- 
gestions as  to  cause  and  cure. 

Schwickerath,  Robert.  Jesuit  Education:  Its  History  and  Prin- 
ciples Viewed  in  the  Light  of  Modern  Educational  Problems.  Pp. 
xv+687.     B.   Herder,  St.   Louis,  Mo.,   1903. 

See  last  four  chapters:  The  Moral  Scope,  pp.  522-573;  Religious  In- 
struction, pp.  574-607;  School-Management,  pp.  608-635;  The  Teacher's 
Motives  and  Ideals,  pp.  636-661. 

Search,  Preston  "W.      An   Ideal    School,    or    Looking    Forward. 

Pp.  xxv-f357.  International  Education  Series,  D.  Appleton  & 

Co.,  New  York,  1901. 

Advocates  radical  educational  reform  in  the  direction  of  individualism. 
Criticism  of  the  whole  plan  of  public  education.  Constant  bearing  on 
the  problem  of  moral  education. 

Sears,  Charles  H.  Home  and  School  Punishments.  In  Pedagog- 
ical Seminary,  vol.  VI,  pp.  159-187.      Worcester,  March  1899. 

An  article  based  on  replies  to  a  questionnaire  sent  to  parents  and 
teachers  for  opinions  on  punishment,  it.*  puriDcse  and  effects.  A  poorly- 
digested  summary  ot  answers.     Contains  bibliography. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  835 

Seeley,  Levi.  The  Foundations  of  Education.  Pp.  xi+263.  Hinds 
&  Noble,  New  York.     No  date. 

A  book  of  simple,  fatherly  ad\'ice  for  young  teachers.  Full  of  helpful 
suggestion  for  parents  as  well.  Practical,  mingling  common-sense  with 
an  appreciation  of  modern  educational  thought. 

Seelye,  Julius  H.      Duty:    A  Book  for  Schools.     Pp.  71      Ginn  & 

Co.,  Boston,  1892. 

A  didactic  text-book  for  children;  brief ,  simple,  giving  the  conventional 
analysis  of  duties. 

Sergi,  Giuseppe.  VEducazione  del  Carattere.  Pp.  vi4-287.  Fra- 
telli   Dumolard,   Milan,    1893. 

Sharp,  Frank  Chapman.  Some  Aims  of  Moral  Education.  In 
International  Journal  of  Ethics,  vol.  IX,  pp.  214-228.  Phila- 
delphia, January  1899. 

Contains  a  protest  against  the  extreme  view  of  the  importance  of 
habit.  Discusses  the  aim  of  moral  education  and  considers  the  value 
of  contact  with  heroes  in  Uterature. 

Shearer,  W.  J.  Morals  and  Manners,  or  Elements  of  Character 
and  Conduct.  Pp.  218.  Richardson,  Smith  &  Co.,  New  York, 
1904. 

Intended  as  a  text-book  for  the  direct  ethical  instruction  of  children. 
Pleasant  and  iess  dry  than  such  texts  usually  are.  Lessons,  descriptive 
and  exhortative,  followed  by  maxims  and  questions.  Good,  but  too 
didactic  and  lacking  in  unity  and  organization. 

Sheldon,  Walter  L.  An  Ethical  Sunday,  School-  A  Scheme  for 
the  Moral  Instruction  of  the  Young.  Pp.  vi-f-206.  The  Mac- 
millan  Co.,  New  York,  1900. 

An  attempt  at  an  organic  course,  applicable  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
Sunday  school.  A  graded  course  of  ethical  instruction  carrying  out  the 
plan  outUned  in  the  above  book  is  now  in  process  of  pubUcation  in  several 
volumes. 

Shirreff,  Emily  A.  E.  Essays  and  Lectures  on  the  Kindergarten. 
Pp.  187.     E.  Steiger  &  Co.,  New  York,  1883. 

—  —      The  Kindergarten  at  Home:     A  Practical 

Hand-Book  for  Mothers  and  Teachers.     Pp.  xvi  +  201.    Abbott, 

Jones  &  Co.,  London.     No  date. 

An  excellent  interpretation,  of  Froebel  by  a  leader  of  the  English 
kindergarten  movement. 

—    —       Moral    Training:      Froebel  and  Herbert 

Spencer.     Pp.  20.     George  Philip  &  Son,  London,  1892. 

An  admirable  brief  discussion,  somewhat  over  zealous  for  Froebel,  but 
pointing  clearly  the  limitations  in  Spencer's  theory  of  punishment  in 
education. 

Shute,  Henry  A.  The  Real  Diary  of  a  Real  Boy.  Pp.  v -I- 154. 
Everett  Press,  Boston,  1902. 

An  interesting  account  of  natural  boy  life.  Whether  or  not  the  book 
is  what  it  purports  to  be — the  real  journal  oi  a  boy — it  is  instructive  in 
showing  the  moraJ  value  of  the  vigorous  contact  of  a  lad  with  his  peers. 


33B  MORAL   EDUCATION 


Skinner,  Charles  R.      Moral    Instruction    in    Our    Schools.      In 

Education,  vol.  XXIII,  pp.  75-82.     Boston,  October  1902. 

A  brief  article  urging  moral  instruction  m  the  public  schools,  and  in- 
j/'  dicuting  tne  range  of  teaching  possible  without  entering  upon  the  field 

■^  of  religion. 

Small,  Maurice  H.  On  Some  Psychical  Relations  of-  Society  and 
Solitude.  In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  VII,  pp.  13-69. 
Worcester,  April  1900. 

—  The  Suggestibility  of  Children.  In  Pedagog- 
ical Seminary,  vol.  IV,  pp.  176-220.  Worcester,  December 
1896 

An  inductive  study.  Some  valuable  pedagogical  applications,  tenta- 
tive, but  directly  applying  to  moral  education. 

Smith,  Nora  Archibald.  The  Children  of  the  Future.  Pp.  165. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1898. 

An  excellent  expression  of  the  spirit  and  contribution  of  the  kinder- 
garten. Consists  mainly  of  counsel  to  mothers,  and  contains  helpful 
advice  on  typical  cases  of  discipUne. 

Smith,  William  Hawley.  The  Evolution  of  " Dodd."  Pp.  153. 
Rand,  McNally  &  Co.,  Chicago.     No  date. 

A  strong  criticism  of  'machine'  education,  cast  in  the  form  of  a  story. 
Most  of  the  points  of  criticism  are  somewhat  overstated.  Emphasizes 
especially  the  personal  influence  of  the  teacher. 

Snedden,  David  S.      Children's    Attitude    toward    Punishment   for 

Weak  Time  Sense.      In  Studies  in  Education,  edited  by  Earl 

Barnes,  vol.  I,  pp.  344-351. 

One  of  the  numerous  suggestive  studies  carried  out  under  the  direction 
of  Earl  Barnes  to  determine  the  reaction  of  children  on  corrective 
discipline. 

Spalding,  J.  L.     Means  and  Ends  of  Education.     Pp.  232,     A.  C. 

McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1895. 

Chiefly  public  addresses  centering  on  the  importance  of  moral  and 
religious  education,  by  a  large-minded,  generous,  thoughtful  Catholic 
bishop.     Unity  in  the  spirit  rather  than  the  organization  of  the  volume 


Thoughts  and   Theories  of  Life    and  Education. 

Pp.  236.     A.  C.   McClurg  &  Co.,  Chicago,  1897. 

Kindly  and  fatherly  counsel  on  life  and  education;  much  of  it  bearing 
on  moral  culture. 

Spencer,  Herbert.     Education,  Intellectual,    Moral    and    Physical. 
Pp.  xviii+283.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1878. 

_  About  one-fourth  of  the  volume  deals  with  moral  education.  Empha- 
sizes the  bringing  to  bear  upon  the  child  the  natural  .consequences  of  his 
actions  as  the  main  business  of  moral  education.  Sane,  and  corrective 
to  ordinary  thinking  and  practice,  but  one-sided  and  lacking  complete- 
joesa  of  view. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  337 

Stapf,  Joseph  Ambros.  The  Spirit  and  Scope  of  Education  in 
Promoting  the  Well-Being  of  Societij.  Translated  by  Robert 
Gordon.     Pp.  376.     C.    Dolman,  London,  1851. 

A  helpful  discussion,  much  of  it  bearing  on  moral  and  religious  educa- 
tion, by  a  Roman  Catholic. 

Starbuck,  Edwin  Diller.  The  Psychology  of  Religion.  An  Em- 
pirical Study  of  the  Growth  of  Religious  Consciousness.  Pp. 
xx+423.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1900. 

An  inductive  study  on  the  basis  of  a  considerable  mass  of  personal 
data,  accumulated  through  answers  to  a  questionnaire  sent  out  widely. 
Some  helpful  inferences  in  reference  to  the  problem  of  moral  and  religious 
education.  Two  studies  by  the  author,  preliminary  to  the  book,  ap- 
peared in  the  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  vol.  VIII,  pp.  268-308. 
and  vol.  IX.  pp.  70-124. 

Stelzle,  Charles.  Boys  of  the  Street:  How  to  Win  Them.  Pp.  9G. 
The  Fleming  H.  Revell  Co.,  Chicago,  1904  (?). 

On  boys'  clubs.  A  good  example  of  the  work  now  being  done  in  that 
connection. 

Stetson,  W.  W.    Thoughts  hy  the  Way.    Pp.  24.     PiilDlisher?  1904. 

A  Uttle  pamphlet  of  sound  didactic  counsel  for  teachers — all  bearing 
on  moral  education — by  the  State  Superintendent  of  Maine.  Copies 
sent  free  on  appUcation  to  the  author. 

Stevenson,  R.  L.  Virginihus  Puerisqxie  and  Other  Papers.  Pp. 
vi  +  278.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  Nev/  York,  1895. 

Delightful  essays  on  ohases  of  human  Ufe,  with  an  indirect  bearing  on 
moral  education.     A  ifttle  whimsical,  but  exquisitely  done. 

Street,  J.  R.     A    Study    in    Moral    Education.      In    Pedagogical 

Seminary,  vol.  V.,  pp.  5-40.     Worcester,  July  1897. 

An  attempt  at  an  inductive  study  on  the  basis  of  a  rather  complex 
questionnaire.  Value  chiefly  in  the  miscellaneous  concrete  results 
accumulated. 

Striimpell,  Ludwig  Adolf.  Die  Pddagogische  Pathologic  oder  die 
Lehre  von  den  Fehlern  der  Kinder.  Pp.  x-h384.  E.  Ungleich, 
Leipzig,  1892. 

Stuart,  Ruth  McEnery.      Sonny.      Pp.   135.     The  Century  Co., 

New  York,  1896. 

A  tender  story  of  the  growth  of  a  strong,  warm-hearted,  self-directing 
child,  who  is  treated  with  love  that  concedes,  almost  weakly,  everything 
he  desires.     A  good  corrective  for  over-severity  in  education. 

Sully,  James.  Studies  of  Childhood.  Pp.  viii  +  527.  D.  Appleton  tt 
Co.,  New  York,  1898. 

An  interesting  collection  of  miscellaneous  material,  much  of  it  anec- 
dotal in  character.  Chapters  VII,  Raw  Material  of  Morality.  an<l  VIII, 
Under  Law,  contain  helpful  data  and  suggestions  for  moral  education. 

Swett,  John.       American  Public  Schools.-    Hisfon/  and  Pedagogics. 

Pp.  320.     The  American  Book  Co.,  New  York,  1900. 

Written  in  text-book  stvle.     Part  I,  chapters  I  and  II.  discusses  school  'y 

discipline;  and  Part  II,  chapter  XII.  contains  .some  excellent  suggestions 
and  topics  for  the  ethical  instruction  of  ciiildren. 


338  MORAL   EDUCATION 


Swift,  Edgar  James.  Some  Criminal  Tendencies  of  Boyhood:  A 
Study  in  Adolescence.  In  Pedagogical  Seminary,  vol.  VIII,  pp. 
65-91.     Worcester,  March  1901. 

A  valuable  study  of  the  boyhood  of  some  men  who  turned  out  well. 
Holds  that  primitive  impulses  are  strong  at  a  certain  period  of  every  boy's 
life,  and  will  lead  to  crime  unless  counteracted  by  influences  in  his 
environment. 

Taine,  H.  A.     Modern    Regime.     Translated    bv    John    Durand. 
Two  vols.     Henry  Holt  and  Co.,  New  York,' 1890  and  1894. 
See  volume  II,  book  VI,  for  a  searching  criticism  and  arraignment  of 
French  public  education  from  Napoleon  onwards. 

Tarver,  John  Charles.  Some  Observations  of  a  Foster  Parent. 
Pp.  xx+282.     A.  Constable  &  Co.,  Westminster,  1897. 

Miscellaneous  talks  by  a  teacher  to  parents.  Based  on  experience  in 
British  schools,  and  applying  more  directly  to  the  conditions  in  England, 
Occasional  chapters  touch  moral  educaUon. 

Thomson,  E.  Educational  Essays.  Edited  by  W.  D.  Clark.  Pp. 
412.     Swormstedt  &  Poe,  Cincinnati,  1856. 

See  pp.  234-257,  Moral  Education.  Especially  good  in  emphasizing 
the  unity  of  life  and,  therefore,  the  intimate  relation  of  aU  elements  of 
education  to  morality. 

Thurber,  C.  H.     The  Principles  of  School  Organization.     A  Com 
parative  Study  Chiefly  Based  on  the  Systems  of  the  Uniter 
States,  England,  Germany,  and  France.     In  Pedagogical  Sem^  -j, 
nary,  vol.   VIII,  pp.  351-394.     Worcester,    September    190 
Deals  with  the  general  problem  of  the  relation  of  schools  to  the  stai 
and  considers  the  advantages  and  evils  of  centralization  in  the  admir 
tration  of  the  schools. 

—    —     Religious  and  Moral  Education  through    Puh 

and  Private  Schools.  In  Proceedings  of  the  Religious  Edu 
tion  Association,  1903,  pp.  124-138.  Executive  Office  of  ' 
Association,    Chicago,    1903. 

Toischer,  Wendelin.       Theoretische  Pddagogik  und  allgemeine  j 

daktik.      In  Handhuch  der  Erziehungs-  und  Unterrichts-Lehrt  '° 
hohere  Schulen,  vol.  II,  part    I.      Pp.  vii  +  200.     C.  H.   B 
Munich,  1896. 

See  pp.  144-200  for  a  rather  dry  discussion  covering  the  genera  ^^. 

of  moral  discipline.  ^"'j 

Tompkins,  Arnold.      The  Philosophy  of  School  Management. 
xiv+222.     Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston,  1895. 

The  Philosophy  of   Teaching.     Pp.  xii+280. 

Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston,  1894. 

See   pp.  36-72,  dealing  with  the  aim  of   education;  and  pp.  267-27o, 
deaUng  with  morals  and  rehgion  in  the  public  school. 

Trumbull,  H.  Clay.  The  Sunday  School :  Its  Origin,  Mission, 
Methods   and   Auxiliaries.     Pp.   xiii+415.     John  D.  Wattles 

&  Co.,  Philadelphia,  1888. 

A  fair  historical  review  of  the  Sunday  school,  with  a  discussion  of  it? 
work  and  opportunities  at  present.  Approves  of  the  International  Les- 
sons, and  believes  the  Sunday  school  is  the  greatest  moral  power  in  the 
world. 


l\ 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  339 

illee,  L.-L.     V Education   Domestique.  dc  V Enfant  et  dc  VAdulte 
ou  VArt  de  Corriger  les  Defauts  et  les  Vices  et  d' Exciter  /c.s  Qnnlitis 
et  les  Vertus.     Pp.  xi+534.     L.Hachette  et  Cie.,  Paris,  1858. 
An  alphabetically  arranged  dictionary.     Small  value. 

sssiot,  A.     Instruction  in  Morals  and  Civil  Gorcrnyy^cnt.     Trans- 
lated by  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  Bureau  of  Education 
Pp.  4.      Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  July  IS82! 

An  admirable  brief  statement  summing  up  the  whole  problem  of  moral 
education. 

lincent,  George  Edgar.     The   Social  Mind  and  Education      Pp 
155.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1897. 

A  stimulating  book  with  a  general  bearing  on  moral  education  from 
the  point  of  view  of  sociology. 

incent,  John  H.  A  Study  in  Pedagogy  for  People  Who  Are  Xot 
Professional  Teachers.  |Pp.  73.  W.  B.  Ketcham,  New  York, 
(copyright)  1890. 

Kindly,  general  counsel  on  religious  and  moral  education. 

^ostrovsky,  Clara.  A  Study  of  Children's  Superstidnns.  In 
Studies  in  Education,  edited  by  Earl  Barnes,  vol.  I,  pp.  123-143. 

''agner,  Charles.  The  Siynple  Life.  Translated  by  ^lary  L. 
Hendee.  Pp.  xxxix+193.  McClure,  Phillips  &  Co.,  New  York, 
1902. 

See  especially  the  fine  chapter  on  The  Education  for  Simplicity,  pp. 
167-187.  ,     .._> 

Youth.      Translated       ffem    the    French    by 

.  Ernest    Redwood.     Pp.  xv+291.     Dodd,  Mead   &   Co.,   New 
York,  1894. 

A  study  of  our  time,  with  the  conditions  it  places  before  youth  (espf»- 
cially  in  France)  and  the  way  youth  should  meet  them.  Didactic  and 
helpful,  with  a  general  bearing  on  the  problem  of  moral  education  in 
the   age. 

'ner,  Ernst.  Luther  als  Pddagog.  Pp.  viii+184.  Die  Klas- 
iker  der  Padagogik,  vol.  II.  F.  G.  E.  Gressler,  Langensalza, 
892. 

An  arrangement  of  Luther's  thoughts  on  education,  taken  from  his 
various  works.     More  bearing  on  religious  than  on  moral  education. 

./arner,  Francis.  The  Stiidy  of  Children  and  Their  School  Train- 
ing.    Pp.  264.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York,  1897. 

Medical  study  of  abnormalities  in  children.  Suggestive  as  to  the 
relation  of  physical  to  moral  problems. 

Weeks,  Stephen  B.,  Compiler.  Art  Decorations  in  School  Ronm.'i. 
In  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  for 
1895-1896,  vol.  II,  pp.  1363-1411.  Government  Printing 
Office,  Washington,  1897. 

Contains  reprints  of  various  articles  and  addressees  bearing  upon 
education  through  beautiful  environment,  also  upon  the  general  place 
of  art  in  education. 


^) 


340  MORAL   EDUCATION 

Weir,  Samuel.  Realism.,  Humanism,  or  Education  for  Society? 
In  Journal  of  Pedagogy,  vol.  XIII,  pp.  325-349.  Syracuse, 
N.  Y.,  June  1900. 

An  interesting  but  not  very  coherent  study  of  the  educational  ideal. 

Welldon,  J.  E.  C.  The  Religious  Education  of  Boys.  In  Thirteen 
Essays  on  Education,  by  E.  Lyttleton,  et  al.,  pp.  53-82.  Perci- 
val  &  Co.,  London,  1891. 

Wendte,  Charles  W.  Popular  Education  and  Public  Morality. 
In  The  New  World,  vol.  VIII,  pp.  417-431.  Boston,  Septem- 
ber 1899. 

A  good  article  showing  the  increase  of  crime  and  its  causes,  and  urging 
more  definite  moral  education  in  home,  school  and  church. 

White,  Emerson  E.     The  Elements  of   Pedagogy.     Pp.  viii+336. 
The  American  Book  Co. ,  New  York,  (copyright)  1886. 
See  last  section,  Moral  Training,  pp.  313-330. 

Religion    in  the    School.     In  Proceedings  of 

the  International  Congress  of  Education,  Chicago,  1893,  pp. 
295-301.  The  National  Educational  Association,  New  York, 
1894. 

Considers  the  measure  of  religion  necessary  to  moral  training  and 
advocates  that  amount  in  the  public  school. 

School    Management:      A   Practical   Treatise 


for  Teachers  and  All  Other  Persons  Interested  in  the  Right  Train- 
ing of  the  Young.  Pp.  320.  The  American  Book  Co.,  New 
York,  1894. 

Deals  in  brief  text-book  form  with  the  main  aspects  of  school  govern- 
ment and  disciphne  and  also  with  direct  ethical  instruction. 

White,  William  Allen.       The  Court  of  Boyville.      Pp.  xxx4-358. 
McClure,  Phillips  &  Co.,  New  York,  1902. 

Pleasant  sketches  of  boyhood  with  a  demand  for  freedom.  Helps  to 
develop  sympathy  with  real  boy  hie. 

Wiggin,  Kate  Douglas.     Children's   Rights:     A  Book  of  Nursery 
Logic.     Pp.  235.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1892. 

Inspired  by  Froebel.  Contains  an  excellent  discussion  of  moral  gov- 
ernment and  discipline  and  of  children's  reading,  with  perhaps  an  occa- 
sional failure  to  recognize  the  harder  reahties  of  life. 

Timothy' s Quest.       Pp.201.     Houghton, 

Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1892. 

An  exquisite  story  of  two  children  and  how  they  were  missionaries  to 
crystalhzed  humanity. 

and     Smith,    Nora    Archibald.       The 


Republic  of  Childhood.  Three  vols. :  I.  FroebeVs  Gifts,  pp.  xi4- 
202;  1895.  II.  FroebeVs  Occupations,  pp.  313;  1896.  III. 
Kindergarten  Principles  and  Practice ,  pp.  205;  1896.  Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  341 

Vinterburn,  Florence    Hull.       From  the     Child's     Standpoint  : 

Views  of  Child  Life  and  Nature.  A  Book    for    Parents  and 

Teachers.     Pp.   27S.     The    Baker  &   Taylor  Co.,    New  York, 

(copyright)   1899. 

A  rather  miscellaneous  series  of  articles  dealing  with  child  life  and  our 
treatment  of  children.  Fine  in  sympathy  with  childhood,  but  advocat- 
ing a  somewhat  soft  regime,  and  perhaps  not  sufficiently  appreciative  of 
the  parent. 

Nursery  Ethics.   Pp.  241.    The  Mer- 


riam  Co.,  New  York,   1895. 

A  pleasant  book,  containing  some  good  counsel,  especially  in  reference 
to  the  treatment  of  young  children.  Accepts,  as  true,  unproved  theories 
such  as  that  concerning  direct  prenatal  influence.  At  times  verges  on 
the  sentimental  view  of  childhood. 

Woltmann,  Ludwig.      System    des    moralischen   Bewusstseins   mit 

besonderer  Darlegung  des  Verhdltnisses  der   kritischen   Philoso- 

phie  zu  Darwinismus  und  Socialismus.   Pp.  xii-f  391.  H.  Michels, 

Dusseldorf,  1898. 

Ver---  little  on  moral  education,  but  that  little  excellent.  See  pp.  383- 
387  f^.-  an  admirable  brief  dialogue  illustrating  the  method  of  dealing 
with  children's  questions  regarding  sex. 

Wood-Allen,  Mary.  Moral  Education  of  the  Young.  In  The 
National  Purity  Congress,  Its  Papers,  Addresses,  and  Portraits, 
edited  by  Aaron  M.  Powell,  pp.  224-238.  The  American  Purity 
Alliance,    New    York,    1896. 

Discusses  the  education  of  children  in  regard  to  sex.  Good,  if  some- 
what overstated. 

Woods,  Robert  A.,  Editor.     Americans  in  Process:     A  Settlement 

Study  by  Residents  and  Associates  of  the  South  End  House.     Pp. 

ix+389.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1902. 

Concrete  material  presenting  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  crowded  sec- 
tions of  Boston.  Shows  in  a  special  form  the  problem  of  moral  education 
as  presented  by  modern  city  life  .with  rapid  immigration. 

Editor.     The  City  Wilderness.     Pp.   viiH-319. 

Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston,  1898. 

A  study  by  various  writers,  chiefly  residents  of  the  South  End  House, 
Boston.  Of  the  same  type  as  Americans  in  Process.  The  two  books 
bear  the  same  relation  to  the  problem  of  moral  education  in  Boston  as 
those  by  Jacob  Riis  sustain  to  the  problem  in  New  York. 

Yoder,  A.  H.     Study  of  the  Boyhood  of  Great  Men.     In  Pedagogical 

Seminary,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  134-156.     Worcester,  October  1894. 

A  study  of  the  early  life  of  fifty  eminent  men.  Emphasizes  the  need 
of  recognizing  and  fostering  talent  in  the  child.  An  original  and  sug- 
gestive piece  of  work  complementary  to  the  numerous  studies  of  defect- 
ives. 

Young,  Sarah.     Delegated   Authority.      In   Studies   in  Education, 

edited  by  Earl  Barnes,  vol.  II,  pp.  218-226. 

An  inductive  study  of  the  reaction  of  children  on  a  specific  question  of 
discipline.  The  study  is  followed  by  some  further  notes  by  the  editor 
on  delegated  authority. 


INDEX 


Addams,  Jane  118,  187.  Bacon,  Francis  238. 

Abler,  Felix      91,     120,     194,  Bain,  Alexander  98. 

2I0-214,  242.  Barnard,  F.  A.  P.   77. 

tEschylus,  241.  Barnes,  Earl  75,  146, 194,  235, 

yEsop,  225.  253,  273,  282. 

Agassiz,  Louis  205.  Barrie,  James  M.  13. 

Aim     of     Moral     Education,  Beauty,    moral    value   of    102; 

summed  up  65-66,  293.  adaptation  of  to  child's  stage 

Alcibiades,  58.  of  growth  102-107;  in  nature 

Alcohol,   instruction  in  regard       104,  108-109 ;  response  of  child 

to  210-211.  to  105-107. 

Aldrich,  Auretta  Roys  88.        Beethoven,  249. 
Aldrich,  Thomas  Bailey  262.    Beoavulf,  245-247,  267. 
Amiel,  28-29.  Bible,  The,   stories  from,   242; 

Angelo,  Michael  249.  use   of   in   schools   264,    280- 

Aristotle,  47,  59,  148,  238.  281,  286;  relation  of  to  civih- 

Arnold,  Matthew  5,  253.  zation  281 ;   moral  value  of  as 

Arnold,  Thomas    206.  literature  286;   use  of  in  Sun- 

Art,  response  to  highest  possible       day  schools  288-289. 

on    any    plane    103-105;     in  Biography,  see  History. 

school-room  104-105 ;  vitality  Biology,  contribution  of  idea  of 

and  truth  in  primitive    237-       evolution  by  32. 

239 ;  expression  of  ideal  in  248 ;  Bracq,     Jean       Charlemagne 

laws  of  life  carried  to  comple-       264. 

tion  in  250-252;  treatment  of  Briggs,  LeBaron  Russell  123. 

evil  in  252;    moral  efiect  of.  Browning,  Robert  28,  253. 

255-256,  257.  Bruno,  Giordano  226,  232. 

Arts  of  Expression,  should  be  Bryant,  Sophie  38. 

acquired  before  the  study  of  Bryant,  William  Cullen    266. 

the  gramm.ar  of  art  74-75.        Burk,  Frederick  75. 
Asceticism,  value  in   education  Butler,  Nicholas  Murray  64- 

201-202.  65. 

Aurelius,  Marcus  265.  Byron,  26,  253. 

Authority,    Personal,     young 

children  resting  in  146;  ques- -Camps,  Summer  113. 

tioning    of     146;     progressive  \ICarlessness,   163. 

withdrawal  of  152-155.  Carlyle,  48-49,  227,  250,  282. 

Awkward  Age,  The,  right  treat-  Casuistry,  tendency  to  in  chil- 

ment  of  37-39.  dren  219. 


INDEX  S4t 

Centralization  in  Education,  City  Life,   special   moral   diffi- 

good  and  evil  of  62-65.  culties    of     93-94,     111-112 

Chandler,  Mary  G.  54.  115,  117,  271. 

i^HARACTER,    conception    of     3;  Cleopatra,  106. 

unity    of    moral    54;     institu-  Clubs,   boys'   and   girls',   moral 

tions    cooperating   in   cultiva-       influence    of     126;     mothers' 

tion  of  55;   should  be  positive       185. 

56-58,  157-158;  need  of  obedi-  Coddling,  harmful  88. 

ence    to    limitations     58-59;  Coeducation,  124-126, 276-277. 

growth  in  61-62;  summary  of  Coit,  Stanton  126. 

forces  molding  67-68;  growth  Collections,  Children's    79. 

of  independent  152-155;    vir-  Companionship,  of  adults  with 

tues  necessary  in  parent  and       children    82-83,   91-92,    185- 

teacher  188-189.  186,  293-294. 

Chaucer,  267.  Conduct,  all  human   action    in- 

Chenery,  Susan  178.  volving  moral  import    47-48. 

Childhood,  interest  of  in  present  Confidence  of  Children,  The, 

moment  9-10;   spontaneity  of       conditions    of    keeping     273- 

10-11;  modern  interpretation       274. 

of  13;    two  balancing  princi-  Courtesy,  the  behavior  of  love 

pies  in  the  training  of    15-16;       203;   importance   of   in   home 

response    to   beauty   in     103-       and  school  203-204. 

107 ;     evil    of    over-regulating  Culture,  value  of  dependent  on 

127-128,     154-155,     178-179;       character  50. 

unity    in    influences     molding  Culture-epoch    Theory,    240- 

180-181;  sensitiveness  to  mor-       241. 

al  reality   in    189-190;    sensi- 
tiveness to  justice  in   193-194;  Daniels,  Arthur  H.  280. 

moral  rationalism  of   193-194;  Dante,  57,  72-73,  164,  165,  174, 

contribution  of  294-295.  232,  249,  250,  252,  254,  261. 

Child  Labor,  93-94.  Darrah,   Estelle  M.    (Mrs.  C. 

Child  World,  The  independent       B.  Dyke)  145,  235,  253. 

meaning    of    9,    11-14;    char-  Darwin,  Charles  258. 

acteristics   of   9-11;    personal  Davidson,  Thomas  277. 

character  of  182;  principles  of  Dawson,  George  E.  288. 

human  life  all  involved  in  209;  Day,  Thomas  223. 

reaction  of  on  the  adult  world  De  Garmo,  Charles  285. 

294-296.  Democracy,    breakdo-^^oi    of   in 

Christ,  Jesus  60,  119.  practice  107,  142-143;  in  the 

Christian    Associations,    121,       state,  134;  in  home  and  school 

127.  government       137-139,      l4l, 

Christianity,  view  of  earth  life       145,  153;  slow  growth  of  in  the 

in  mediaeval  11,  15;    negative       state  142;   the   true    principle 

ideals  in  59;    morality  of  the       of  143;    preparation  for    155; 

spirit  in  60.  fickleness  of  230;  moral  lead- 

Church,  The,    influence    of    on       ership  in  230. 

the    social    atmosphere     120-  Descartes,  226. 

121.  Diagnosis,  moral  167-168. 


344  MORAL  EDUCATION 


Discipline,  college  140;   correc-  and  school  government    153, 

tive,  see  Punishment  and  Re-  221 ;  aim  of  207;  subordinated 

WARDS.  to  moral  action  207-208,  220- 

DisEASE,  Physical,  influence  on  221 ;    principles  guiding  208- 

character  52,  101-102,  180.  213;  text-books   for   213-215, 

Dreyfus  Case,  64,  111.  260;  best  method  of  214-215, 

Duty,  conflict  of   love  and  duty  264,  267;  assignment  of  regu- 

69-70;  conflict  of  interest  and  lar  periods  for  216-218;    pre- 

duty    in    education    70 ;     ten-  paration  of  parents  and  teach- 

dency  to  be  transformed  into  ers    for   221 ;     special    courses 

love  71-73.  for  258,  261-264;   abstracting 

moral  element  in  263;   princi- 

Eaton,  John  260.  pies  in  organizing  material  for 

EccLEsiASTES,  21.  265-267;    in    intimate    prob- 

Edgeworth,  Maria   and  Rich-  lems  of  human  life    268-278; 

ARD  Lovell,  79,  168.  function  of  the  Sunday  school 

Education,  early    American  3;  in  287-289. 

both  science  and  art  in  29-31 ;  Ethical  Interest,   supreme  in 

two  types  of  failure    possible  human  life  4,  47,  218;  central 

30-31;  effect  of  laws  of  growth  in  all  expressions  of   life  259. 

on  39,  45-46 ;    subordinate  to  Ethics,  relation  to  other  sciences 

nature  46;  moral  element  cen-  47. 

tral  in  all    50,  55;  unity  not  Everett,  C.  C.  214. 

uniformity     desirable    in    65;  Evil,  moral    value  in  studv  of 

results    expected    from     293;  227-230,  252;  victory  of  good 

difficulty  in  294;    problem    of  over,   in   mythology  243-245; 

pressing   for   immediate    solu-  conquering     good,     in    myth- 

tion  294.  ology  245-247. 

Eliot,    Charles    William     76,  Evolution,    conception    of    32, 

183-184,  210-211.  103;   moral,  intellectual   prin- 

Elizabeth,  Queen  226.  ciple     in    40;    parallel    in    of 

Ellis,  A.  Caswell  280.  individual    and    race     40-45, 

Emerson,    Ralph    Waldo     23,  142-143,  236,  240-241 ;  moral, 

69,234,250,265.  emotional     principle     in     43; 

Emotions,   moral  value   in  cul-  moral,    from    simple    to   com- 

tureof  51-53,  247;  mythology  plex  243. 

furnishing  good  material  for  Example,  Moral  Influence  of, 
culture  of  236-239 ;  culture  of  in  parents  and  teachers  199- 
through  literature  253-257;  206;  in  the  study  of  history 
need  to  express  in  good  action  226-235 ;  in  the  study  of  liter- 
all  stimulation  of  255-256.  ature  252. 

England,  moral  education  in  3; 

boys'  schools  in  125-126.  Farm  Life,  superior  moral  value 

Ethical   Culture   Society,   of  of  work  in  92,  111. 

New  York,  120,264.  Farrar,  F.  W.  290. 

Ethical   Instruction,   relation  Father,  The,  relation  of  to  the 

of    to  moral  culture  67,  207-  problem  of    punishment   179; 

208,  258;  in  problems  of  home  responsibility  of  185-186;  in- 


INDEX 


345 


fluence  of  example  of  200-201 ; 

reception  of  son's  confidences 

bv  274 ;  duty  of  in  instructing 

boys  275. 
Faust,  Goethe's  as  type  of  irra- 

tionpJ  living  42. 
Fear,  moral  exTect  of  137. 
Ferguson,  W.  B.  211. 
FicHTE,  232. 
Field,  Eugene  13,  266. 
Flatland,    a    book    discussing 

space  of  two  dimensions  22. 
Folk-lore,  see  Mythology. 
FoRBUSH,  William  Byron  126. 
France,  moral  education  in    3, 

63-64,  213,  259-260,  263-264. 
Francis,  St.,  of  Assisi  206,  232, 

264-265. 
Freedom,  moral  value  of    127- 

128,    143;  training  for  155. 
Froebel,  12,  15,  64,  68,  70,  77, 

78,    135,    166,    177,   186,   192- 

193,  205,  206,  225,  289. 

Games,  educational  value  of  77- 
78;  should  stimulate  activity 
and  imagination  79-81 ;  value 
of  social  combination  in  81- 
82 ;  mistake  in  over-regulating 
83. 

Gardens,   School    95-96,    112. 

Gates,  Eleanor  20. 

George  Junior  Republic,  144- 
145. 

German   Folk-lore    242,    243, 

Germany,  moral  education  in 
3 ;  effect  of  militarism  in  64. 

Gifts,  Froebel's  78. 

Giles,  Arthur  E.  170. 

Gill,  Wilson  L.  144. 

GiLMAN,  Nicholas  Paine    214. 

Gluttony,  163. 

Goethe,  1,  12,  42,  76,  77,  103, 
154,  220,  243,  244,  249,  250. 

Good  Taste,  Ethical,  cultiva- 
tion of  254-255. 

Government,  influence  of  on 
moral  character  129,  134-137, 


141;  of  college  students  140; 
of  infancy  145-146;  of 
young  people  154-155;  of 
children,  personal  influonce 
in  182-183,  188-189;  all  func- 
tions of  united  in  parent  and 
teacher  183;  of  children,  vir- 
tues needed  in  188-189. 

Grahame,  Kenneth  13. 

Grant,  U.  S.  234. 

Grimm  Brothers  243. 

Grimm,  Hermann  242-243. 

Growth,  irregularities  in  phy.'^i- 
cal  32-33;  irregularities  in 
mental  and  moral  33-34;  law 
of  rhythm  33-35. 

Habit,  should  be  formed  before 
reasoning  75,  148;  established 
by  work  86-87;  of  work,  how 
formed  92;  moral  value  of 
148-152;  need  to  win  child's 
cooperation  in  forming  149; 
a  means  of  slavery  as  well  as 
freedom  149-151 ;  a  means  of 
adaptation  to  statical  environ- 
ment 151-152;  need  of  super- 
vision by  reason  151-152. 

Hahnemann,  162. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett  77. 

Half-truths,  danger  of  4. 

Hall,  G.  Stanley  33,  35,  36, 
169,  170,  172,  173,  275,  280, 
283,  288. 

Harris,  W.  T.  133. 

Harrison,  Elizabeth  116. 

Hebrews,    moral    restrictions 
among  ancient  60. 

Hegel,  240. 

Hen'ky  Vni,  282. 

Herbart,  50,  52,  53,  83,  88,  98, 
127,  147,  169,  175,  179,  228- 
229. 

Heredity,  15,  184-185. 

HiGGINSON,   T.   W.   77. 

Hinton,  C.  H.  22. 

History,  showing  moral  law 
225-226;  value   of   heroic   iu- 


346 


MORAL  EDUCATION 


cidents  in  226-227;  influence 
of  great  personalities  in  227; 
moral  law  revealed  in  evil 
characters  of  227-229;  rever- 
ence for  moral  leadership  cul- 
tivated by  study  of  230;  pa- 
triotism cultivated  by  study 
of  230-231;  humanitarian 
spirit  developed  by  study  of 
231-232;  conditions  of  right 
use  of  for  moral  culture  232- 
235;  broader  interpretation  of 
needed  233-235;  women  in, 
234-235;  organization  of  mate- 
rial from  259,  265-266;  using 
incidents  from  261-262;  inci- 
dental use  of  265. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell  184. 

Home,  The,  moral  value  of 
beauty  in  107-108;  right  so- 
cial atmosphere  in  116;  prin- 
ciples in  organization  of  132; 
effect  of  tyranny  in  135-136; 
aim  of  democracy  in  137,  143; 
application  of  democracy  in 
145,  153;  value  of  for  moral 
nurture  186-187. 

Homer,  26. 

Hopkins,  Louisa  Parsons    52. 

Household  Tasks,  moral  value 
in  the  child's  education  90; 
regulation  of  the  child's  92-93. 

Hughes,  James  L.  290. 

Humanitarian  Spirit,  The,  cul- 
tivation of  231-232;   254-256. 

Humanities,  The,  moral  value  in 
study  of  224. 

Humor,  Sense  of,  moral  value 
of  178-179,  254-255. 

Huntington,  James  O.  S.  85, 
118,  187. 

Hyde,  William  DeWitt  154. 

Ibsen,  Henrik  243,  244. 

Ideals,  communicated  by  con- 
tagion of  the  spirit  204-206; 
inspired  bv  history  and  biog- 
raphy      226-227,       234-235; 


appreciation  of  national  and 
cosmopolitan  231-232;  in- 
spired by  literature  252-253; 
in  the  commonplace,  revealed 
by  literature  256. 

Imagination,  moral  value  in  cul- 
tivation of  51-53;  discipline 
for  excessive  163,  170;  myth- 
ology furnishing  good  food  for 
236-239;  cultivated  by  study 
of  literature  253-255. 

Imitation,  in  children  199;  of 
behavior  203-204 ;  of  the  ideal 
204-206;  of  historic  personali- 
ties 227;  of  noble  characters 
in  literature  252-253. 

Impudence,  146,  191. 

Infancy,  need  to  avoid  stimula- 
tion of  38;  chief  element  of 
moral  education  in  75-76 ;  ad- 
justment of  pleasure  to  life-sus- 
taining action  in  75;  type  of 
obedience  in  145-146. 

Institutional  Life,  evils  of  for 
children  186-187. 

Interest,  opposed  to  duty  in 
education  70. 

Intimate  Problems,  Instruc- 
tion IN,  need  of  268-269;  re- 
sponsibility of  parent  in  269, 
273-275, 278 ;  made  difficult  by 
instinct  of  reserve  269,  272 ;  re- 
sponsibility of  teachers  in  269, 
273,  275-276,  278;  should  in- 
culcate reverence  for  every 
natural  human  capacitv  269- 
270;  mistakes  in  271-273,  275; 
conditions  of  272-274;  right 
method  in  275-276,  278; 
place  of  the  school  in  275- 
276;  value  of  natural  science 
for  275-276;  value  of  litera- 
ture and  autobiography  for 
276;  responsibility  of  ministers 
and  physicians  in  278. 

Italian  Painters,  portrayal  of 
children  by  9. 

Italy,  moral  education  in  3. 


INDEX 


347 


Jackson,  Edward  Payson  214. 
James,  William    88,   148,   150, 
201-202,  255. 

JOUFFRET,    E.    22. 

Joy,  art  of  83-85. 

Justice,  in  parent  and    teacher 

193-197;    child's   response   to 

193-194. 

Kant,  12,  69-70. 
Karma,  Doctrine  of  15. 
Kempis,  Thomas  k  265. 

Laloi,  Pierre  213. 

Lancaster,  E.  G.  275,  280. 

Languages,  moral  value  of  the 
study  of  96. 

Larcom,  Lucy  104. 

Larned,  J.  N.  214. 

Larsson,  Gustaf  95. 

Lecky,  William  Edward  Hart- 
pole  14. 

Law,  relation  of  moral  and  nat- 
ural 48-50;  reverence  for 
taught  by  contact  with  nature 
109-111,  222-223;  value  of 
free  response  to  147,  155;  par- 
ent and  child  alike  sub- 
servient to,  192-193;  in  rela- 
tion to  temperance  instruction 
2 1 0-211 ;  history  presenting 
life  as  governed  by  225-226; 
literature  showing  life  in  rela- 
tion to  250-252. 

Laziness,   163. 

LiARD,  Louis  213. 

Lies,  Children's,  different 
types  of  170-171 ;  treatment 
of  170-174. 

Life,  Human,  each  phase  of  dis- 
tinct in  meaning  12;  unitv  of 
14,  "«7,  21,  23;  made  of  simple 
elements  18 ;  centering  in  each 
person  18-20;  unique  in  each 
individual  25;  element  of  ex- 
periment in  27-29;  periods  of 
growth  in  34-35;  ethical  ele- 
ment central  in  47;  moral  im- 


port in  every  aspect  of  49; 
a  sane  balance  of  activities  201,' 
270;  solving  contradictions  of 
philosophy  220;  moral  value 
in  study  of  223-224 ;  interpre- 
tation of  in  literature  250- 
252,256-257;  sound  meaning 
in  each    capacity  of  269-270. 

Lincoln,  Abraham  23,  183, 
188,  189,  230. 

Literature,  of  moral  education, 
reasons  for  barrenness  of  4; 
for  children  242,  266-267 ;  pe- 
culiar excellence  of  as  a  fine 
art  248;  accessibility  of  for 
education  248-249;  moral 
value  of  content  of  249-250; 
expression  of  author's  charac- 
ter in  250;  presenting  life  in 
relation  to  law  250-251;  tn^at- 
ment  of  evil  in  252;  noble 
characters  in  252-253;  culti- 
vating appreciation  of  nature 
253-254;  cultivating  apprecia- 
tion of  human  life  254-257; 
ideal  in  the  real  revealed  by 
256;  calming  and  exalting  the 
spirit  256-257;  organization 
of  material  from  259,  265, 
266-267 ;  using  selections  from 
261-262;  incidental  moral  use 
of  264-265;  complementary 
value  of  mythology  and  mod- 
ern 266. 

Locke,  John  87,  139,  146,  162, 
274. 

Logical  Order,  opposed  to 
order  of  development  74-76, 
106-107,    212-213. 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wads- 
worth  266. 

Loti,  Pierre  110. 

Love,  in  parent  and  teacher 
197-198;  taught  through  cour- 
tesy 203-204. 

Lowell,  James  Russell  233, 
250,  265,  266. 

Lukens,  Heralvn  T.  75, 


348 


MORAL  EDUCATION 


Ltttleton,  E.  273. 

Mann,  Horace  141,  168,  206. 
Manual  Training,  moral  value 
of  95. 

Marion,  Henri  254. 
Marsh,  Harriet  A.  181. 
Mathematics,  for  space  of  two 

or     four      dimensions    21-22; 

moral  value  of  96-97,  222. 

Matthew,  Book  of  60. 

McMtjrry,  F.  M.  227. 

Mezieres,  M.  a.  213. 

Militarism,  moral   effect  of  64. 

Mill,  James  52. 

Mill,  John  Stuart  61,  89. 

Milton  103,  267. 

Moral  Failure,  two  forms  of 
60-61 ;  study  of  in  history 
227-230 ;  study  of  in  literature 
252. 

Moral  Initiative,  value  of  65- 
66. 

Moral  Leadership,  study  of 
230. 

Moralizing   208,  223,  225,  259. 

More,  Sir  Thomas  226. 

Mother,  The,  relation  of  to  the 
child  90,  186;  preparation  of 
185;  duty  of  in  instructing 
daughters  275. 

Motherhood,  Instinct  of  90, 186. 

Mothers'  Clubs,  185. 

Mo  WRY,  W.  A.  133. 

Music,  appreciation  of  22;  in 
school,  105;  moral  effect  of 
255. 

Mythology,  place  of  in  primi- 
tive life  236;  primitive  rev- 
erence for  237 ;  artistic  vitality 
of  237-238 ;  truth  in  238-239 ; 
chief  argument  against  use  of 
in  education  241-242;  evil  of 
carelessly  altering  242-243 ; 
moral  value  of  primitive  stan- 
dards in  243-247;  contrasted 
with  modern  literature  266. 


Nagging,  178-179. 

Napoleon,  58,  225. 

Natural  Science,  moral  value 
of  173,  222-224,  275-276. 

Nature,  originality  of  25 ;  child's 
appreciation  of  104-105;  con- 
trasted with  art  109 ;  effect  of 
beauty  of  109 ;  effect  of  truth 
of  109;  moral  culture  through 
action  in  conformity  to  109- 
111;  contact  with  in  summer 
farm  or  camp  113;  moral 
value  in  study  of  222-224 ;  in- 
terpreted in  literature  253- 
254. 

New  Education,The,  character- 
istics of  5;  deeper  reverence 
for  persons   in  17;  fault  in  88. 

New  Humanism,  The  284. 

NiCHOL,  J.  P.   51. 

Norse  Mythology,  245. 

Obedience,  taught  by  contact 
with  natural  law  109-113; 
type  of  in  infancy  145-146; 
problem  of  transforming  blind 
into  intelligent  147;  moral 
value  of  unreasoning  148-149. 

Obici,  Giulio  273. 

Oppenheim,  Nathan  33. 

Orpheus,  and  the  Sirens,  story 
of  158. 

Over-regulation  of  Child- 
hood, evil  of  127-128,  154- 
155,  178-179. 

Parent,  The,  influence  of  per- 
sonality in  62-63,  182-183, 
188-189;  companionship  of 
with  children  82-83,  91-92, 
185-186,  293-294;  questioning 
authority  of  146;  difficulty  in 
conceding  freedom  to  children 
153-155;  cooperation  with 
teacher  180-181 ;  need  to  con- 
cede authority  to  teachers 
181 ;  all  functions  of  govern- 
ment united  in  183;  prepara- 


INDEX 


349 


tion  of  184-187;  responsible 
for  the  child's  heredity  184- 
185;  instinct  of  parenthood 
186;  type  of  character  needed 
in  188-189;  sincerity  in  189- 
193,  209-211;  justice  in  194- 
197;  love  in  197-198;  influ- 
ence of  example  of  199-204; 
influence  of  ideals  of  204-206 ; 
task  of  in  ethical  instruction 
215-216,  221;  duty  of  to  in- 
struct children  in  intimate 
problems  269,  273-275;  re- 
ception of  child's  confidences 
by  273-274;  principles  guid- 
ing in  religious  education  290- 
292 ;  education  of  by  the  child 
294-296. 

Parties,  Child  rex's    116,  270. 

Passing  of  Kixg  Arthur,  Ten- 
nyson's, compared  to  Beowulf 
246-247. 

Patriotism,  cultivation  of  230- 
231. 

Peabody,  Elizabeth  Palmer 
172. 

Periods  in  Development,  im- 
portance of  33,  36,  39;  law  of 
rhythm  33-35 ;  period  of  sub- 
sidence in  mental  growth  at 
eight  or  nine  36 ;  the  awkward 
age  37-39 ;  etiect  on  education 
39;  moral  faults  due  to  179; 
adaptation  of  ethical  instruc- 
tion to  211-212,  265-267;  re- 
lation of  instruction  in  inti- 
mate problems  to  271-276; 
relation  of  religious  education 
to    290-292. 

Perseus  and  Andromeda,  myth 
of  244. 

Personality,  reverence  for  in 
the  new  education  17;  unique 
in  each  individual  24 ;  balanc- 
ing truths  with  reference  to 
27;  unity  in  moral  54-55; 
value  of  independence  in  62- 
66;    moral  influence  of  62-03, 


182-183,  188-180,  227,  284; 
type  of  necessary  in  parent 
and  teacher  1 88- 198;  value 
of  slight  expressions  of    233. 

Pestalozzi,  Johann  Heinrich 
70. 

Pets,  Animal,  value  of  80;  possi- 
bility of  keeping  at  school 
112. 

Phillips,  Stephen  26-27. 

Philosophy,  early  Greek  219; 
should  follow  science  and  ex- 
perience 219-220. 

Physical  Environment,  moral 
influence  of  101-102,  107- 
108. 

Physical  Training,  value  of  for 
morality  51-52. 

Physiology,  vicious  tendencies 
in  text-books  on  210-211. 

Plato,  4,  23,  50,  51,  219,  241, 
251. 

Play,  character  of  in  relation  to 
work  68;  value  of  in  educa- 
tion 76-77;  need  to  utilize 
consciously  77-78,  85;  Froe- 
bel's  contribution  to  the  utiliz- 
ing of  play  in  education  78; 
principles  which  should  deter- 
mine play  of  children  78-83; 
companionship  with  children 
in  82-83;  mistake  in  over- 
regulating  83. 

Poetry,  truth  of  contrasted 
vnth  history  238-239. 

Pr.\to,  Story  of  the  Workmen 
OF   19. 

Prizes,  177-178. 

Progress,  Moral,  first  principle 
of  40;  individual  repeating 
race  41,  44;  second  principle 
of  43. 

Psychology,  influence  on  religi- 
ous education  of  new  studies 
in  279-2S0. 

Public  Opinion,  efl"ect  of  in 
school  139, 


350 


MORAL  EDUCATION 


Punishment,  work  not  to  be 
assigned  as  98-99;  relation  to 
problem  of  government  156- 
157;  Spencer's  theory  of  157, 
161-166 ;  value  of  utilizing  nat- 
ural consequences  as  157,161- 
166;  aim  of  158,  160-161,  166, 
169-170;  older  theories  of 
159-160;  as  moral  medicine 
160-162,  167-170;  corporal 
162,  168-169;  value  of  disci- 
pline opposite  to  the  fault 
163-165;  Dante's  use  of  164- 
165,  174;  moral  attitude  de- 
termining efi'ect  of  164-165, 
175,  195-197;  condition  of 
right  administration  of  167- 
168,  175-176,  178-181;  princi- 
ples determining  169-170; 
evil  in  constant  and  excessive 
178-179. 

Race  and  Individual,  parallel 
in  development  of  40-45,  142- 
143,  236,  240-241. 

Rationalism,  in  children  193- 
194. 

Reason,  moral  value  in  cultiva- 
tion of  51,  53;  attempts  to 
suppress  147;  need  of  to  super- 
vise habits  151-152. 

Rebellious  Children,  cause 
and  treatment  of  136-137. 

Religion,  study  of  history  and 
sources  of  281-282;  definition 
of  282;  elements  of  283-284; 
wonder,  awe  and  reverence  in 
283;  passion  for  human  ser- 
vice in  284;  influences  mold- 
ing personal  284;  child's 
growth  in  290-292. 

Religious  Education,  new  in- 
terest in  279-280;  Chicago 
Convention  on  279,  280;  in- 
fluence of  psvchology  on  279- 
280;  two  problems  of  281; 
place  of  historv  of  religions  in 
281-282;    task"' of    cultivating 


the  higher  religious  spirit  in 
282-284,  292;  influences  to  be 
utilized  for  284;  problem  of 
teaching  theses  of  faith  285; 
plans  for  in  foreign  lands  285 ; 
conditions  of  in  American 
public  schools  286;  duty  of 
the  teacher  in  286-287 ;  in  pri- 
vate schools  287;  place  of  the 
Sunday  school  in  287-289; 
principles  guiding  parents  and 
teachers  in  290-292;  associa- 
tion with  persons  of  other 
faiths,  value  for  291-292;  two 
aims  in  292. 

Reni,  Guido  106. 

Reports  of  the  Commissioner 
OF  Education  for  the  Unit- 
ed States  211,  260. 

Respectability,  Negative, 
small  moral  value  of  57;  the 
burden  in  all  reform  58. 

Revelation,  Book  of  57-58. 

Reverence,  in  children  190- 
192;  toward  intimate  problems 
271-272. 

Rewards,  two  types  of  176- 
177;  value  of  natural  conse- 
quence of  good  action  176; 
danger  in  moral  stimulants 
177 ;  place  of  in  education  177- 
178. 

Richardson,  F.  W.  144. 

Richmond,    Ennis    125,   277. 

Riley,  James  Whitcomb  10,  13, 
266. 

Romans,  Epistle  to  the  164. 

ROSENKRANZ,        JOHANN        KaRL 

Friedrich  168-169. 
Rousseau,   Jean   Jacques     13, 

61,  70,  161,  270. 
Rules,    place    of    in    governing 

children  139-140. 

Sanity,  The  Need  of  in  Edu- 
cation 5-6. 
Sappho,  253. 
Savonarola,  232. 


INDEX  351 

Schiller,  232.  Slovenliness,  163. 

School,    The,    moral    value    of  Sloyd,  95. 

phj'sical  conditions  in  101-  Smith,  William  IT.wn-ley  IGO. 
102,  107;  beauty  in  105-108;  Smoking,  habit  of  151;  attitude 
social  atmosphere  in  121-123;  of  a  father  or  schoohna.ster  to- 
principles  in  organization  of  ward  200-201  ;  instruction  in 
133;  eMect  of  tvranny  in  135-  regard  to  210-21 1. 
136;  aim  of  democracy  in  137,  Social  Atmosphere,  The,  a 
143;  effect  of  public  opinion  real  force  114;  in  the  adult 
in  139;  application  of  de-  world  115;  diiTerent  evils  of 
mocracy  in  145,  153.  in  wealth  and  povertv  115;de- 

School  City,  The  144-145.  termined  by  segregation    117- 

ScoTT,  Walter  267.  121;  influence  of  religious  or- 

Selections,  from  literature,  bad       ganization  on  120-121 ;  in  the 
use  of  261-262.  child  world  121 ;    influence  of 

Self-activity,     significance     in       schools  on  121-123. 

education   68.  Social  Segreg.\tion,  as  a  means 

Settlements,  Social  118,  119.         of  determining  moral  atmos- 

Sexes,  effects  of  separation  of  phere  117;  effect  on  those  ex- 
the  124-126;  moral  value  of  eluded  by  117;  effect  on  the 
healthy  association  of  the  segregated  117-118;  for  the 
124-126,  276-277;  need  of  both  sake  of  service  119-121,127; 
in  education  188;  presenta-  in  schools  121-123;  bv  age 
tion  of  both  in  historv  234-  and  sex  124-126,  276-277. 
235.  Socrates,  206,  226,  251. 

Sex  Life,  The,  «sound  meaning  Sophocles,  5,  192. 
in  269-270;  evil  in  precocious  Spalding,  J.  L.  53. 
development  of  270-271 ;    un-  Sparta,  effect  of    militarism  in 
healthy  stimulation    of    270-       64. 

271 ;  in  adolescence  271 ;  influ-  Spencer,  Herbert  33,  47,  157, 
ence  of  vulgar  companions  on,  161-166,  178. 
273;  need  to  keep  the  confi- Spinoza,  4,  84. 
dence  children  to  protect  273-  Spontaneity,  in  children  10-11; 
274;  wise  instruction  in  regard  in  American  education  64-65. 
to  274-276;  effect  of  healthy  Standards,  Mor.\l,  relative  and 
association  of  bovs  and  girls  absolute  62,  212;  for  children 
on  276-277;  eflect  of  adult  and  adults  199-201 ;  in  nivth- 
associates  on  277-278.  ology  241-247. 

Shakespeare,  23,  252,  253,  254,  State,  The,  influence  of  on  char- 
267.  acter  of  citizen  130;  principles 

Shearer,  W.  J.  "214.  in  organization  of  131;   justi- 

Shirreff,  Emily  A.  E.   137,166,       fication  of   democracy  in  134; 
186.  effect  of   tyranny  in  134-135; 

Shute,  Henry  a.  128.  slow  growth  toward  democracy 

Sincerity,  in  parent  and  teacher       in  142-143. 

189-193,  278,  290;  child's  re-  Starbuck,  Edwin  Diller   280. 
sponse  to  189.  Stevenson,  Robert  Louis    11, 

Sirens,  The,  story  of  158.  13,  72,  171,  208. 


352 


MORAL  EDUCATION 


Suffering,  effect  of  on  charac- 
ter 52,  101-102,  180. 

SULLENNESS,    174-175. 

Sunday  School,  The,  function  of 
in  ethical  and  religious  in- 
struction 287-289 ;  prepara- 
tion of  teachers  for    288-289. 

Supervision,  evil  of    excessive 

127-128,  154-155. 
Sydney,  Sir  Philip  226. 


Toys,  value  of  simplicity  in  78- 
79;  should  stimulate  activity 
79;  should  stimulate  imagina- 
tion 80-81. 

Tyranny,  effect  of  in  the  state 
134-135;  effect  of  in  home  and 
school  135-136. 

Ulysses,  and  the  Sirens,  story  of 
158. 


Tardiness,  137-138,  163.  Vacation  Schools  113. 

Teacher,  The,  influence  of  per-  Vessiot,  A.  259-260. 

sonality    in     62-63,    182-183,  Virtue,  defined,  257. 

188-189;  companionship  with 

children  82-83,  293-294;  difTi-  Wagner,  Richard  22,  103,  239, 

culty  in  conceding  freedom  to       249 

children  153-155;  cooperation  Washington,  George   183,  230, 

with  parent  180-181 ;   author-       233, 

ity  of  181;   functions  of  gov-  _,,       '  ioo  ton, 

emment  united  in  183;    pre-  Whispering    138-139. 

paration  of   183-184,  186-187,  ^f.^'^^A    "^^^^      Greenleaf 

261 ;  type  of  character  needed       ^"^'  '^^'^^ 

in  188-189;   sincerity  in    189-  Will,  attempts  to  break  147. 

193  ,209-211;  justice  in  194-  Willoughby,  W.  W.  159. 

197;  love   in   197-198;    influ-  Woltmann,  Ludwig  273. 

ence  of  example  of    199-204;  Women,  in  history  234-235. 

influence  of  ideals  of  204-206 ;  Wordsworth,   14,  48,  72,  265, 

task  of  in  ethical    instruction       267. 

214-221;  duty  of    to   instruct  Work,  two  types  of  68;  lower 

children  in  intimate   problems       type  of  action  tending  to  pass 


269,  273,  275-276;  duty  of  in 
religious  instruction  286-287; 
principles  guiding  in  religious 
instruction  290-292 ;  educa- 
tion of  by  the  child   294-296. 

Teasing,  179. 

Temperance,  201 ;  instruction  in 

regard  to  210-211. 
Tennyson,    25,    239,    246-247, 

267. 

Thomson,  E.  54. 

Thurber,  Charles  H.  280-281. 

Toleration,  the  time  to   teach 

38-39 ;  teaching  children  moral 

202-203. 


into  next  higher  71-73;  per- 
manently necessary  in  educa- 
tion as  in  life  73;  values  of 
in  developing  character  86-87 ; 
educational  value  of  when 
distasteful  89-90;  cultivating 
respect  for  90 ;  companionship 
with  the  child  in  91-92;  types 
of  in  school  94-97;  wise  regu- 
lation of  98-100;  folly  of 
multiplying  obstacles  in  99- 
100;  in  obedience  to  natural 
law  109-111. 


legends  of  241-242. 


'u  :D/ii;\ 


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